Fading Away
by Beans On Toast
Summary: Set after 2x15. Alex & Kara are still distant. Alex struggles to repair their relationship whilst Kara's life seems to have fallen apart.
1. Chapter 1

Alex was antsy. She was huddled into herself on the far side of the couch, ignoring the movie, phone clutched in hand. Maggie had watched her get more and more restless as the evening progressed.

Instead of the cheesy rom com in front of her Alex's thoughts were on the day's events. Kara's dishevelled appearance. Kara brushing off their plans for tonight. Kara shouting at Winn.

She shook her head in a bid to try to clear her thoughts but her mind continued to replay her day.

Supergirl being thrown through the walls of an old warehouse causing the building to crumble and collapse on top of her. Alex's own bloody hands moving rubble, trying to unearth her sister. The image of Supergirl emerging from the debris, uniform shredded, one arm clutching her stomach, the other arm was hanging limply at her side, her shoulder clearly dislocated.

"Just go over there and see her." Maggie said softly, taking Alex's phone away from her, if only to save the case that she had been picking at for the last half an hour. Alex flinched at the fleeting contact.

"She doesn't want to see me. And anyway, its late." Alex sighed. She had thought that things between her and Kara had been getting back to normal but in the last few weeks they had barely seen each other, let alone spoken to each other. Kara was not taking her calls and any texts she got a reply to did not invite conversation.

"Alex please. Just go and see her, put your mind at rest." Maggie pulled a reluctant Alex in for a hug.

Alex let Maggie play with her hair as she relaxed into Maggie's arms.

"I'll drive you over there."

"No. It's okay. You've got work in the morning."

* * *

"Kara?" Alex threw her fist against the door again, growing more and more inpatient with every knock.

"I'm going to let myself in." She warned before pulling her copy of the key out of her pocket and letting herself into Kara's apartment.

"Kara?" Alex called again as she struggled to find the light switch.

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay." She continued before her fingers fumbled over the correct part of the wall and she turned the light on.

The apartment was empty. Not only was Kara not there, none of her belongings were either. The apartment was bare. Stripped back to its basic shell.

Alex searched the apartment calling Kara's name, desperate to find some trace of her little sister.

* * *

"Kara!"

It was getting louder.

"Kara!"

Kara was huddled on her bed trying to block out the noise of the city. Her fight that afternoon had sapped all her energy and she just needed some sleep. Her stomach still ached and there was a burning pain all along her arm where J'onn had helped her push her arm back into place. Alex was right, she should have spent some time under the sun lamps.

She groaned as she was assaulted by another blast of super hearing. She could hear the baby crying in the apartment building across the street. The angry drunk shouting at his young son as a bottle shattered a couple of blocks away. Through it all she could hear her sister shouting her name desperately. She had to shut them all up.

Controlling her powers had always been hard, but recently any control she once had was slipping away. The super hearing was the worst. Every little creak and drip in her new apartment was amplified. The ancient heating system groaned as if in pain and the whole building shivered in the wind. Sleeping here was impossible. Her old tricks for blocking everything out just didn't work anymore and the stress was making her other powers worse. There were the random bursts of x-ray vision when she wasn't wearing her glasses, bursts of super strength when she was just trying to pick up a glass or shut a door and yesterday, when she was rescuing a child from a car wreck, some petrol fumes had caught in her throat and the resulting cough had sent her freeze breath all over him. The poor kid had turned blue with the cold.

Across the city, she could hear Alex again.

"She's not here Maggie. It looks like she moved out a while ago judging by the dust."

She could just about make out Maggie's reassurance from the end of the phone and Maggie begging a worried Alex to come home so they could figure out what to do together.

Before she knew it, Kara was flying high above National City, the wind in her ears blocking out most of the unwanted sounds from the city below.

She broke the sound barrier about ten miles outside of the city, high above a quiet neighbourhood. The resulting sonic boom pierced her ears, the noise reverberating through her bones. She suddenly felt her strength leave her body and she began to tumble out of the sky, disorientated and completely out of control. She hit the dry dirt of the field below hard, sending a dust cloud up into the air and began to cough heavily as a result.

Angry tears began to drench her cheeks as she struggled to pull herself out of the crater her crash landing had caused. She could still hear the noise of the city and she could still hear Alex. Somewhere through the chaos of National City, Alex was with Maggie.

Kara tried to block out everything and just focus on Alex but it was all too much and she was losing control. First, she could see the skeletons of the occupants of the only house within sight of where she had landed, they were up against the windows, peering out in search of the cause of the loud bang. Then her heat vision kicked in, scorching a patch of dry grass a couple of feet away from her. She screwed her eyes up to try to stop any further outburst but this only gave her a headache, her whole body started to shake from the pain and built up energy.

Without even thinking of the consequences she focused the massive beams of solar energy from her eyes to the ground draining her anger as well as her power. The resulting explosion sent her stumbling backwards to the ground again.


	2. Chapter 2

Alex hovered over Winn as he tapped away at the keyboard, using the full force of the DEO's computer system to find Kara. She had been at the DEO for two hours now and she was no closer to finding her sister. Mon-el had been less than useless when she had dragged him out of bed in the dormitory and interrogated him. Apparently, he didn't know Kara had moved out of her apartment either and by the sound of it he had barely seen Kara outside of the DEO for weeks.

"Why isn't her tracker working?" Alex hissed as she silenced an incoming call on her cell.

"She's probably disabled it and the only way to track her would be if she was in the air, which she's not." Winn's keystrokes became more furious, he could sense Alex glaring at him.

"It doesn't matter though because Kara Danvers is a lot easier to track than Supergirl. Look." He smiled and pointed at the computer screen. "Kara is paying rent on an apartment near the river." A couple more taps on the keyboard brought up a map of the downtown area.

"That is not a good neighbourhood." Alex sighed as she recalled Maggie telling her about mounting tensions between the alien and human residents in the area.

"She's Supergirl." Winn pointed out as he continued his search for information. "The rent is cheap, she is unemployed now. From the looks of these bank statements she was barely making her rent payments when she was employed."

"How long has she been living there?" Alex voice was barely audible.

"Four weeks." Winn mumbled, not looking up from the computer, he didn't want to risk meeting Alex's eyes. They both knew that that meant neither of them had been to Kara's place for at least a month. No sisters' nights, no game nights.

"I'm going to head over there now." Alex told him as she gathered up her jacket.

"It's six o'clock in the morning Alex."

"My thoughts exactly Agent Schott." The appearance of J'onn startled the pair and Winn instinctively moved himself behind Alex to protect himself from J'onn's intimidating stare.

"We were just running through some new Cadmus leads." Alex told him, holding his gaze.

"Well since you are both here, I need both of you out to Little Rock to investigate reports of an explosion thought to be alien related."

"Actually, we were just…" Alex started.

"Around 22:00 hours last night locals reported a sonic boom." J'onn interrupted. "We are passing it off as military testing but one 911 caller reported seeing a person fall from the sky and get up again. NCPD's Science Division are now investigating. Detective Sawyer called me, apparently you aren't answering her calls." One of J'onn's eyebrows was raised and Alex felt guilty, she had left Maggie fast asleep but alone in bed at 3 am this morning and been ignoring her calls for the last hour.

* * *

Maggie groaned as she walked the scene again. Her head was pounding in the early light and she was tired. Alex had tossed and turned all night before giving up in the small hours and as a result Maggie had not slept either. She crouched down to examine the scorch marks on the dry earth, hoping to draw a different conclusion to the one she had initially reached but the scorch marks, impact crater and the witness' descriptions only lead to one alien she could think of. A Kryptonian. And if the reports of long, curly blonde hair were accurate then this event involved Supergirl.

The squeal of a government issued vehicle signalled the arrival of the DEO and one pissed off Agent Danvers.

"Detective." Alex greeted her icily as she began to survey the scene. Her face fell as she took in the sight of the scorched earth. "Kryptonian?" Her voice cracked with the implication.

"Yeah." Maggie glanced around at the scene again, struggling to meet her girlfriend's eyes.

"Alex! Over here." Winn called from where he was crouched down near the crater, looking at his tablet. Maggie followed as Alex marched over to Winn.

"What've you got?"

"Blood and hair." Winn stuttered. "More specifically Kryptonian blood and blonde hair." He added in response to Alex's raised eyebrow as he handed her the tablet displaying his preliminary analysis.

"Kara?" Alex whispered.

"Witnesses report a sonic boom and one guy on his way home from an evening out swears he saw a woman with blonde hair fall out of the sky and land over there creating that massive hole before pulling herself out." Maggie gestured as she read from her notebook. "He's a bit hazy on the details but he saw a massive burst of light that seemed to explode."

"Solar flare?" Alex's question was so quiet that Maggie struggled to hear her through the wind.

"Sounds like it." Winn offered, taking back the tablet from Alex's hands and resuming tapping on the screen.

"Where is she now?"

"No one saw anything after that."

"That was last night, it's nearly 8am, she's injured."

"I'll get a dog out here. See if we can track her." Maggie took Alex's hand and squeezed gently before running her fingers soothingly over the wounds from the previous day on her hands.

"There's nothing about Supergirl on the morning news. I'm searching social media now, if Kara goes anywhere as Supergirl then someone tweets about it." Winn was trying to reassure them in his own way.

"She could be anywhere. We don't even know which way she went." Alex sighed in defeat as she looked out at the vast landscape. National City on one side and mountains on the other.

"Guys I've got something." Winn called as he waved the tablet toward them. "Supergirl is currently at the scene of a car wreck outside the Halls of Justice." He flicked through a series of tweets and pictures showing Supergirl assisting firefighters by pulling the roof off a car.

"I'm heading over there." Alex ran off towards her car with Maggie and Winn close behind.

* * *

They arrived at the Halls of Justice around half an hour later. The rush hour traffic had severely hindered both their journey time and Alex's emotional state. Even with sirens wailing and Alex's foot's affinity for the accelerator they were too late to catch a glimpse of Supergirl. A tow truck was loading the smashed car up and the last fire truck was packing up. A couple of uniformed NCPD officers were still milling around and Maggie called over to one she knew by name and asked him what had happened.

"Just the usual. Car jumped the light, swerved out of the way of a couple of pedestrians, hit a parked delivery van. Supergirl appears and saves the day. Nothing to concern the Science Division, Detective Sawyer." The officer told her defensively, eyeing Alex and Winn suspiciously.

"Do you know where Supergirl is now?"

"Home I hope. Seems to be losing her touch if you ask me. Definitely looked a bit worse for wear."

Alex held back a snarky remark. She wanted nothing more than to hit the cop but restrained herself and let Maggie continue.

"Well no one asked you, Officer Johnson. Did you see which way she was heading?"

"She wandered off South on Market Street. I don't know where she was going."

"Thank you, officer." Maggie sighed sarcastically before turning back to Alex and Winn.

Alex took out her phone and dialled Kara's number, letting it go to voicemail a couple of times before shoving it back in her pocket.

"Okay." Alex cleared her throat as if to pull herself together. "Let's go back to the DEO and see what we can get from the surveillance and satellite footage of Little Rock. If Supergirl doesn't want to talk to us then we'll just have to figure out what happened the old-fashioned way."

* * *

"Alright then. This is the only camera that captured anything." Winn sang with his usual enthusiasm.

The footage was grainy. Alex could just about make out the grass field they had been in an hour before. The camera seemed to shake and seconds later a figure fell from the sky and disappeared out of view of the camera only to be replaced by a cloud of dust and debris presumably from the impact of the figure hitting the ground.

"Is that it?" Alex was exasperated.

"Just keep watching."

Alex continued to stare at the black and white footage of the field on the screen as the debris and dust dispersed. Her arms were folded tightly across her body, fingernails digging into her arms. Suddenly the screen went completely white and seemed to shake again before the figure is thrown back into shot. The person landed hard, head ricocheting off the ground, coming to rest unmoving on their back.

"I can't tell anything from this, can you…"

"Don't even think of asking me to zoom in and enhance that image Danvers. The camera that recorded this is older than I am. This is as good as I could get it. Winn shot back defensively as he moved the footage on five minutes to watch the figure roll onto their front and crawl out of shot.

"There is nothing after that."

Alex just continued to stare at the screen. Maggie and Winn exchanged worried glances before Maggie reached out and touched Alex's shoulder.

"She's okay, Alex." Maggie whispered softly.

Alex turned to watch the muted news footage of Supergirl struggling to remove the roof of the smashed-up car allowing the firefighters to move in with a spinal board and free the injured driver.

"She solar flared. She barely has her powers. She is not okay." Alex pulled away from Maggie and took her phone out and called Kara's cell for the twentieth time that morning. She was shocked when someone actually picked up on the other end.

"Not now Alex, I've got an interview."

Alex's relief was short lived as Kara ended the call.


	3. Chapter 3

"Thank you, Miss Danvers, we'll be in touch." Kara shook the hand the man offered her.

"Thank you for your time." She smiled back, trying to mask the pain in her arm.

She exited the meeting room and made her way out of the building. Sunlight had filtered through the large windows of the office throughout her interview and her super hearing was slowly restoring itself.

"She scored highly overall."

"She did for me too but I'm still unsure about why she left CatCo."

"I've got a friend over there, I'll see what I can find out."

Kara sighed as she felt the spring air hit her. Maybe she should start looking for jobs outside of journalism and the media. Everyone in National City was connected, there was no escaping what had happened with Snapper Carr. Maybe if she moved to the other side of the country where nobody knew who she was, she could get a fresh start, or maybe Kal could help her out.

Alex would kill her though. She would hunt her down and drag her back to National City. Although maybe not. Not after the last few months. They may as well already be living on other sides of the country, maybe even the planet at the moment. It was her fault. She had been keeping Alex at arm's length for a while now, not wanting to be a burden, especially now she was so happy with Maggie. She had a new life to live. One that did not involve looking after her needy, unemployed little alien sister.

Kara was still lost in thought when she clumsily stumbled through her apartment door. As she emptied her portfolio from her bag she realised she could hear another heartbeat in the apartment. Startled, she turned around, readying herself to fight the intruder. She relaxed a little when her eyes settled on Alex sitting on her couch.

Kara was weighing up her options of what to say when she realised that Alex had clearly been crying and she rushed over to the couch to comfort her.

"Alex? What's wrong?" Kara's arms were instantly around Alex, enveloping her in a hug, nearly crushing and overbalancing her sister. Alex winced in her arms and Kara apologised profusely as she adjusted her arms to accommodate her returning super strength.

Neither of them said anything for at least five minutes. Alex clung onto Kara until her breathing settled and she had composed herself.

"Since when don't we talk about things like this anymore?" Her voice was muffled against Kara's chest.

"About what?"

Alex wriggled herself away from Kara and rubbed her eyes with her sleeve.

"This!" She almost spat, arms gesturing to the tiny studio apartment around them. "I don't want you living here." She told her firmly, glancing around at the dark and cramped living space.

"This is all I can afford right now."

"I could've helped you out."

"Alex, I know the DEO don't pay you as much as they should. You can't afford to support me."

"You can stay with me at my place until you get yourself sorted."

"I'll be in your way."

"Kara."

"What if you want Maggie to stay over."

"Kara."

"And what if I never get another job. What if I end up barely making minimum wage and relying on tips again like when I worked at Noonan's?"

"Kara."

"Editors aren't exactly eager to employ a crappy writer who was fired from CatCo after only a few months as a journalist.

"Kara." Alex was shouting now trying to bring an end to Kara's rambling.

"Sorry. Crap sorry." She apologised again when she realised she was gripping the arm of her sofa so hard in the midst of her rant that it was now crumbling in her hand.

"It's not my couch you've wrecked." Alex smirked before smiling. "At least you didn't completely drain your powers."

Kara must have looked confused because Alex began to elaborate.

"Last night in Little Rock."

"Oh yeah, that." Kara stood up suddenly but quickly realised there was nowhere for her to go and so went over to the sink to get herself some water. "Do you want a drink?" She offered.

Alex shook her head and watched as Kara struggled to hide how uncomfortable she was.

"What happened last night?"

"Nothing really, just a small problem, nothing I couldn't handle." Kara stuttered, refusing to meet Alex's gaze.

"You know I've seen some video footage." Alex raised her eyebrow but Kara didn't see the gesture. She was busy filling her glass with water until it was overflowing back into the sink.

"You fell out of the sky. It kind of looked like you were fighting with yourself." Alex suggested.

The glass in Kara's hand smashed to pieces spectacularly under her grip and Alex jumped up to help Kara clean up the mess. She faltered when she saw blood coming from a gash in her sister's wrist. Kara's whimper of pain shook her into action and she grabbed a tea towel to wrap around her wrist.

"What the hell? What is going on with you Kara?"

Kara was shaking now. Her legs felt like they could no longer support her and she collapsed into Alex and Alex gently lowered her to the ground, hand still applying pressure to her wrist.

"I need you to come to the DEO." Alex told Kara firmly after a couple of minutes on the floor. She unwrapped the towel and checked the wound over. There was no sign of any glass but the cut was deep, still oozing blood and there was no evidence that it had begun to heal.

"It's just a cut." Kara was trying to get up but she was still trembling and could barely get herself to her knees.

"Like you are in any state to argue." Alex told her as she tied the towel around Kara's wrist before helping her slip on a jacket and pulling her to her feet.

Kara allowed herself to be led from the apartment into the elevator and out onto the street where Alex had left her black DEO SUV. Alex helped her into the back of the car and Kara lay across the back seat and shut her eyes.

Alex jumped behind the wheel and headed for the DEO, sirens blaring.

* * *

Alex practically had to carry Kara into the medical bay. Luckily there were no casualties, just one lone assistant organising and cleaning equipment. She ordered the assistant out of the ward as she helped Kara onto a bed, before rushing to close all the blinds.

"How long have you been struggling to control your powers?" Alex removed the towel from Kara's wrist and began to inspect her wound. The bleeding had stopped but it did not look like the wound was healing, at least not at superfast, Supergirl speed.

"I'm going to steristrip this." Alex explained when she got no response from Kara. "It shouldn't hurt." She reassured her as she reached over to the dressing trolley and searched the draws underneath for the paper stiches.

"I want to help you Kara." She sighed as she tended to her wound. "But you are going to have to talk to me."

Kara continued to stare at her wrist and did not say anything.

Alex insisted on a full examination. She worked through the exam methodically. Kara stayed quiet throughout, not even flinching when Alex took her blood. Alex was finishing her work up when Kara finally spoke.

"My arm still hurts." Kara whispered. "It doesn't feel right, not since J'onn helped me put it back in place when I dislocated it.

Alex frowned before stalking to the other side of the med bay and wheeling the portable x-ray machine over to Kara's bed.

"Let's just have a quick look." Alex said softly as she placed the x-ray board under Kara's arm and took a series of x-rays of her whole arm and shoulder before reviewing them on the machine's screen.

"Humerus is intact and in the correct place, no sign of any damage to the humeral head." She remarked before moving on to the next image.

"Oh. I've found the problem. You've got a nondisplaced fracture of both your ulnar and radius." Alex pointed to the damage on the screen so Kara could see. "I'm going to have to put a back slab on it to make sure it heals correctly."

"Then can I go home?"

"I think you should try and spend the afternoon under the sun lamps." Alex told her as she moved around the room, gathering equipment.

"I feel better."

"At least until I get your blood results back."

Alex made quick work of placing the back slab on Kara's arm and hand before x-raying her arm again.

"I'm sorry it's not the neatest. I've not done one for a while." She mumbled as she examined her work. Both of Kara's arms were now bandaged and she looked small in the bed in her 'Kara Danvers' ensemble rather than her super suit.

"I'm going to check something in my lab. I'll bring my iPad back and we can watch something on Netflix." She said as she tuned the sun emitters on.

* * *

Alex knew from experience that the beds were not comfortable but when she returned to the medical bay Kara looked at peace. She was curled up on her side, under at least two blankets which were pulled right up to her face. The superhero appeared to have got her hands on every pillow in the bay and had surrounded herself with them. Her work shoes lay discarded on the floor at the foot of the bed and her feet were the only part of her body that was visible. It wasn't exactly the best for getting exposure to the sun lamps and the solar radiation she needed. Alex studied the small panel on the sun bed. The levels of solar radiation in Kara's cells was approximately 20%. She reached across Kara and gently removed the blankets. Her little sister did not even stir.

Alex sat at the computer at the station overlooking Kara and began to pull up Supergirl's notes from previous visits to the med bay.

Kara had lost 20lbs since her last DEO medical six weeks ago. Alex glanced over at her sleeping sister. It was hard to tell looking at her but Alex knew Kryptonians store muscle and fat differently to humans.

She pulled up previous solar radiation readings including after her first solar flare from defeating Red Tornado. Six weeks ago, the reading had been at 90%, all other previous routine medicals had readings of 96% or above.

Alex glanced at Kara's broken arm. She had broken it before she solar flared last night, meaning her powers hadn't been working properly yesterday at the warehouse.

A notification pinged on the computer screen and she pulled up a full set of blood results. Nothing too untoward, Kara was slightly dehydrated. No signs of infection. No traces of kryptonite. Another bleep startled her. This time from the sun bed. She went to investigate the alarm. The panel on the bed was flashing. It was warning her that Kara's solar radiation levels were at 15%.

"What the hell?"


	4. Chapter 4

Alex was silently panicking. She was frantically searching through a log of incidents that Supergirl had attended. Before her last medical, the last time Supergirl had been checked over was when she had narrowly avoided death when saving Lena Luthor from Metallo and Cadmus. Her solar radiation levels had been 96% and so Alex was checking every incident since. Supergirl must have been in contact with something that was affecting her cells and their ability to absorb sunlight.

"Agent Danvers." J'onn was stood in the doorway, his arms crossed in front of his chest, his voice was stern but his face full of concern.

Alex glanced at Kara who was still asleep. She had set the sunbed to steadily increase its power, hoping the gradual increase would prevent Kara from waking up.

"What is going on?"

Alex ushered J'onn into the small office to one side of the medical ward.

"Just a small injury, nothing a bit of sun won't fix." It was overly upbeat and both J'onn and Alex knew it.

"Alex, you know I try not to read your thoughts but I could hear your anguish from across the DEO."

Alex wavered under J'onn's stare.

"Kara's arm is broken. She's not healing and the levels of solar radiation in her cells is falling even though she is under the sun lamps."

"Is it anything to do with that solar flare last night?" J'onn quipped.

Alex stuttered but did not have a response.

"I have already had Agent Schott give me an overview of last night's incident seeing as you failed to brief me yourself."

Unable to meet J'onn's eyes she diverted her attention towards her sister, checking the monitor for any changes, any slight sign of improvement.

"I'm not sure she did solar flare, Sir. Not properly. In fact, it sounds like her arm was broken during the warehouse attack."

"Meaning?"

"I'm worried something else is responsible, that something is draining her cells of energy."

"Like what?"

"Some kind of virus? A parasite? Contact with some kind of element? I don't know but I'm searching all incidents Supergirl has been involved in. I've narrowed it down to the last eight weeks."

"Eight weeks? How have we not known for eight weeks?"

"I'm sorry. It's my fault. Her last medical showed levels of 90% and I was supposed to follow up but after everything with my dad, erm, well, I let things get in the way. Kara has been avoiding me and I let her. I didn't push it. Her monthly check up is well overdue."

J'onn placed a reassuring hand on Alex's shoulder and Alex stopped rambling and dissolved into tears. J'onn pulled her into a hug. He looked out of the office window and watched Kara sleeping as he soothed Alex.

"We need to brief the team." J'onn told her as she pulled away from him.

"I guess." Alex looked reluctant to leave Kara.

"It won't take long."

Alex followed J'onn to the command area of the DEO with a last lingering glance at Kara sleeping on the sun bed.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Alex returned to the medical bay to find the ward empty and the sun bed beeping incessantly. Panic began to creep up on Alex again as she took in the scene in front of her. Pillows were strewn everywhere; the dressing trolley was overturned and the door to the bathroom was completely off its hinges. She heard someone retching through the doorway and hurried to the bathroom to find Kara hunched over the toilet.

Alex couldn't stop herself from flinging herself down next to Kara and wrapping an arm around her.

Kara finally stopped heaving and collapsed against Alex.

"Do you feel any better?" Alex asked.

"What do you think?" Kara grumbled.

"Let's get you back under the sun lamps."

"No. No more sun." Kara winced as her sister helped her up. "You know I can't stand them at full power Alex."

"Kara, please. The levels of solar radiation your cells are storing is falling. I need you back under the sun lamps and I need to run some more tests."

"Alex."

"No arguments Kara." Alex's voice faltered. Kara rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically but she allowed Alex to lead her back to the sun bed and to help her into the bed.

"Can you at least turn it down a bit, its giving me a headache." Kara whined, squinting against the light.

"Kara."

"Fine." Kara huffed, taking a pillow from behind her head and putting it over her face, shielding her eyes from the painfully bright lights.

"Kara, the levels of solar radiation in your cells was only 20% when you first went under the lamps, it continued to fall to 15% whilst you were under them."

"I said fine." It came out sharper than she had meant it to.

"I'm going to find the tech, I want to see if we can give you a CT scan." Alex almost whispered, trying to keep her emotions in check and the tears from spilling down her cheeks.

"I'll be two minutes. Please just stay on the bed." Alex told her as she left, glancing at the monitor that informed her that Kara's solar levels were up to 35%.

Kara listened to Alex retreat down the corridor and resisted the urge to get off the bed and go home. Alex was clearly upset, she strained her super hearing to listen to Alex sniff and then what sounded like wipe her hand across her eyes before knocking on an office door.

Kara tuned Alex out and focused on the annoying drone of the sunlight emitters. She felt sick again and her head was splitting, even with the pillow still firmly over her head. Her thoughts were racing.

She was going to throw up.

Where was Alex?

She couldn't leave until Alex came back.

She said she would only be two minutes.

Kara knew she was panicking. She curled up on her side and tried to listen for Alex to block out the sound of her own thoughts. She couldn't hear Alex over the hum of the sunbed. The lights were vibrating and she could feel it shaking her bones. She was going to be sick.

The sound of the door opening cut through her muddled thoughts and Alex was at her side in seconds.

"Kara?" Alex glanced up at the monitor. Solar energy levels were at 99%. Before she could react, Kara was off the bed and throwing up in the sink at the edge of the bay. Alex followed her.

"I feel horrible." Kara moaned before splashing water on her face. "It's those stupid lights." She added before rinsing her mouth out.

"Well the good news is that your cells have somehow reached 99% but…"

"Good." Kara cut her off, eyes glowing red with her newly restored heat vision.

"What the hell are you doing Kara?" Alex shouted, backing away from her sister.

Kara responded by aiming her heat vision at the plaster on her arm and using the heat to cut through the back slab before turning it on the other arm and removing the crepe bandage covering the glass wound.

"Did that make you feel better?" Alex sighed.

"No." Kara whispered as she gripped the sink for support as she struggled to stay stood up. The edge of the sink was cracking under her grip and the unit looked like it was at risk of coming off the wall completely.

"Kara, I think there is something really wrong with you." Alex told her as she helped her sister stumble into a chair.

"Can I go home?"

"No."

"Alex."

Alex pulled her little sister closer and began to stroke her hair.

"You can stay with me tonight. You're not going back to that crappy apartment alone and I am definitely not setting foot in there again until you have cleaned it at least twice."

* * *

Kara had managed to eat everything Alex had had in her kitchen before passing out in front of the IT Crowd, some weird British comedy that had Kara snorting with laughter and Alex rolling her eyes.

'Maybe she thinks their accents are funny.' She thought to herself as she placed a blanket over her sister and kissed her forehead softly.

Alex settled herself at her desk with her laptop and resumed her searching of every person/alien/thing Supergirl had been exposed to recently. Cadmus was at the top of her list of suspects but they had not jumped at her chance to attack when Supergirl was at her most vulnerable. Alex was beginning to wonder if whatever was happening to Supergirl was accidental.

The list of possible contaminants was endless and soon she had filled five pages of her notebook with an exhaustive list she would have the team checking first thing in the morning while she was with Kara for her scan.

One thing was irritating Alex about the current case she was looking at. A tiny grey worm had been discovered in the possession of an alien who was implicated in a robbery at a pharmaceutical lab just over seven weeks ago. The worm was covered in some dull blue spots. It reminded her of an alien Supergirl had fought 6 weeks ago, a grey, almost human looking creature with a smattering of dull blue freckles on its cheeks and dull blue spots on its tail.

Alex highlighted both incidents in her notebook before stifling a yawn. She leaned back in her chair and shut her eyes for just a second but when she woke up it was light outside, she was in her bed, her phone was screaming at her and Kara was gone.

"Kara?" Alex shouted as she searched her apartment. It was pointless. Kara had left the window open when she had escaped through it.

Her phone was still ringing relentlessly, demanding her attention.

"What?" She barked into the phone as she scraped her hair back from her face.

"Alex? It's Winn."

"Is this important?"

"There's an alien attacking civilians downtown, Supergirl is already there."

"She's what? Where is she Winn?"

"Memorial Plaza, Alex…"

Alex ended the call before Winn had a chance to finish. She threw on some clothes and her gun before running to the garage and jumping on her bike.

She was on the scene in five minutes, having ignored every traffic light on the way.

The alien was at least 25foot tall, it towered over the small two storey buildings that lined the plaza. She couldn't see her sister anywhere so she headed over to J'onn who was shouting orders into his comm.

"Agent Danvers."

"What do we know?"

"Take one of these." J'onn replied, handing her a kryptonite loaded gun.

"What the hell?"

"It's the only thing that is piercing its skin. We have no idea what it is."

"Where's Supergirl?" Alex asked as she placed her comm in her ear and checked the kryptonite weapon over.

J'onn wavered, staring up at the alien.

Alex noticed his hesitation.

"Where is she J'onn?"


	5. Chapter 5

Kara was confused. Surely, she should be dead right now.

Sunlight was streaming through the alien's half open mouth and with it the screams of the civilians who had just witnessed Supergirl seemingly being eaten.

She struggled to get up, only to find that she was pinned down. A single tooth had pierced her left thigh and was holding her firmly in place.

"What kind of alien only has one tooth?" She thought out loud as she looked for a way out. She struggled pointlessly but as she did, a thick liquid began to form underneath her. It burnt her hands but her super suit seemed to be protecting the rest of her body.

"Are you trying to digest me?" She shouted in anger as she shot her heat vision at the roof of the alien's mouth. It didn't have much effect. The saliva like substance began to build, burning her left leg where the tooth was still lodged.

Kara pulled at her leg, desperately trying to pull it free of the long tooth. It was no good though, she was stuck.

Trying a different approach, she lifted herself up as best as she could and aimed her heat vision at the base of the tooth until she had damaged the delicate gum surrounding it enough to completely rip the tooth out. The whole mouth vibrated as the alien screamed out in pain.

Kara forced herself to her feet and pulled the tooth out of her leg, fighting the urge to cry out from the pain. As she was finally freeing herself the alien closed its mouth completely, leaving her in total darkness.

"Crap." She muttered as she fought off a wave of nausea.

'This stupid thing is going to swallow me whole.' She thought to herself.

In a desperate attempt to keep herself alive, Kara aimed her heat vision at where she guessed the back of the alien's throat was.

It happened quickly.

Suddenly she was being ejected from the alien's mouth along with the contents of its stomach.

She hit the concrete floor hard.

For a minute, everything was dark and fuzzy.

Her hearing came flooding back to her and she heard J'onn give the order to fire as she struggled to stand up. The alien screeched in pain, it sounded almost human. The noise caught Kara off guard and she froze in place. Suddenly she was back in the grip of the alien. Its claws were sinking into her stomach as it squeezed her. She couldn't breathe. Her chest was unable to expand against the force being exerted by the alien's hands.

She looked down at the crowd of agents in the plaza firing at the alien, she couldn't pick out Alex.

The alien was screaming again.

She felt weak.

The glow of green kryptonite was everywhere and it was making her feel sick.

And then she was falling. The alien had released her from its grip and she smashed into the pavement again. She recovered quicker this time and jumped to her feet only to witness the DEO's onslaught on the alien.

"Stop." She managed to shout. "Please stop, you're killing it."

It was too late. The alien began to fall forward. Kara managed a quick burst of super speed to get out of the way before it crushed her but the force with which it hit the pavement sent shockwaves through the concrete and she went sprawling to the floor one last time.

Kara strained to hear a heartbeat through the overwhelming chaos that had erupted around her. Her nausea was amplified by the lack of sound from the alien's chest. Blood was pouring from the hole in her thigh and she was absolutely covered in alien vomit and slime. She was surrounded by members of the public, all with their cell phone cameras following her every move.

She felt a wave of nausea and dizziness pass over her. She could not throw up in front of all these people. Kara began to panic and still unable to find Alex or even J'onn in the crowd she forced herself up in the air. With what felt like the last of her strength she flew herself to the ocean.

* * *

"Agent Schott, is Supergirl's tracker active?" J'onn shouted into his earpiece over the commotion of his agents trying to move the body of the massive alien. His eyes met Alex's as he impatiently waited for an answer.

"Agent Schott?"

"Erm…"

"Spit it out, Winn." Alex chimed in.

"It looks like she's out in the ocean." Came the uncertain voice over the comm.

"She's flying over the ocean? Where is she headed?" Alex was confused.

"She's stationary and from the altitude it looks like she's in the water."

"Send the data to my phone Winn." J'onn ordered as he followed Alex who was already pushing through the crowd to his car.

* * *

The salt water was stinging her wounds. Whenever Alex got sunburn in the summer she would always submerge herself in the water. She told Kara that the stinging meant the salt was healing. Not that Kara had ever experienced it first hand, she had never even felt physical pain on Earth until she became Supergirl. The burning of the water felt good though, it felt like it was helping.

She floated for a while and let the current take her out to sea.

Letting herself succumb to the sea was easy. She allowed the weight of her cape drag her down under the waves. The salt burnt her eyes but she kept them open, watching the sun glimmer through the ripples of the waves, getting further away as she was pulled deeper into the depths. It was quiet, peaceful, suffocating.

She needed to breathe. She began to panic as she couldn't find the strength to swim to the surface. Her limbs flailed uselessly and she found herself tangled in the strong red cape, still heading for the ocean floor. She felt numb, nothing hurt anymore. Maybe she was finally healing. Maybe she was dying.


	6. Chapter 6

Alex let the tears fall freely from her eyes. Days of pent up stress and worry for her sister had finally taken its toll. She watched helplessly from the shore as J'onn flew over the ocean, guided by Winn, trying to find Kara.

She held her breath as she watched the Martian dive out of the sky again and into the waves. He was under the water for just under two minutes. Alex's lungs were burning. Supergirl could go without taking a breath for longer than her, but she couldn't survive underwater indefinitely.

When J'onn finally emerged from the water, Alex allowed herself to let out the breath she had been holding in. Her heart rate increased as she saw a flash of red in the Martian's hands. It was Kara's cape. Instead of diving back into the water to find her sister, J'onn flew towards her, landing heavily and dropping to his knees, cape still clutched tightly in his fist.

"What are you doing?" Alex shouted, furiously wiping tears from her eyes.

"I can't find her." J'onn was still trying to catch his breath.

"But her tracker."

"It's offline now. This is the last place a signal was picked up." He got back to his feet and approached Alex, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Alex, if she's still in the water the current could have carried her for miles." He sounded defeated.

"No." Alex shouted, shrugging off his touch and removing her boots.

"What are you doing Alex?"

"I'm not leaving her out here." Alex ran into the ocean, ignoring the sting of pebbles on her bare feet, ignoring J'onn's desperate shouts.

The water was painfully cold on her legs and with each step she could already feel the pull of the current.

This was a suicide mission.

She took a deep breath and prepared to dive into the depths. Instead of hitting the icy water she found herself being pulled into the air. Strong green arms held her in place as she was dragged further from the waves, further from her sister.

Someone was screaming. She struggled against J'onn's strong arms but her own arms were pinned to her sides by his crushing grip. She kicked out at him, desperate for him to let her go, to let her fall into the water, to let her be with Kara.

"Agent Schott, send a recovery team to Supergirl's last location, I'm bringing Agent Danvers in." Alex heard J'onn shout into his comm as she continued to thrash against him.

The world began to fade and became dull. She could sense J'onn's presence in her mind. The screaming stopped and breathing became easier as J'onn loosened his grip on her. She let her eyes fall closed and then all she could see was red. Red like the Martian's eyes. Red like her sister's cape.

* * *

Glass shattered around her as she used the last of her energy to crash through the window, smashing into her fridge and leaving a huge dent in it. Another repair she couldn't afford. A trail of salt water and blood followed her as she limped across her kitchen towards her bathroom.

Kara caught a glimpse of herself in the dirty mirror in her hallway. Blood was still oozing from the wounds on her stomach and thigh and she looked pathetic in her torn-up uniform. The lack of cape made her look small.

She was no superhero. Not anymore.

Dropping to her knees, she slowly crawled to her bathroom, needing all four limbs to support her body weight. When she finally reached her shower, she struggled with what remained of her super suit, eventually discarding the shredded suit in the bin under her sink.

She pulled herself up on the wall of the shower and turned the water on, before sliding back down the wall. The initial blast of water from the shower was freezing cold and Kara found it hard to catch her breath due to the shock. Eventually the water temperature settled to a warm trickle and Kara began to scrub at the laceration on her abdomen. Despite a long soak in the ocean it was definitely not clean. She scrubbed until she couldn't take the pain anymore, her skin rubbed raw. Only then did she move onto the injury on her thigh.

Gritting her teeth through the pain, she managed not to scream as she pulled the torn skin away from the edges of the wound. The hole the alien's tooth had left in her leg went all the way through her thigh. She tried her best to clean it but it was too deep.

She trashed her apartment in her frantic attempt to find something to dress her wounds and eventually settled on wrapping a towel tightly around her thigh and tucking another towel under the waistband of her sweatpants to protect it from her clothes.

Realising she was shivering, she pulled on a hoodie and crawled into her bed. The coldness of the ocean lingered in her bones as she closed her eyes.

* * *

Maggie was dozing on Alex's couch, waiting for her girlfriend to wake up.

J'onn had flown Alex home and waited for Maggie to arrive at the apartment before flying off to find Kara. He hadn't really explained what was going on, only that Kara was missing and that Alex had completely freaked out. That had been two hours ago. Alex hadn't even stirred since Maggie had arrived in the apartment, until now.

A whimper from the raised bedroom pulled Maggie from her thoughts and she was at Alex's side in seconds.

"Kara?"

The small voice broke Maggie's heart. She watched as whatever psychic healing J'onn had used wore off and reality hit Alex like waves on a rock.

"Have they found her?"

"No." Maggie found the strength to admit. Winn had been texting her updates but none of them had brought good news.

The sound that came from Alex's mouth was pure agony. Tears were pouring out of her eyes and all Maggie could do was hold her until the bawling had slowed and settled into muffled sniffs and intermittent sobs.

Alex suddenly tore herself away from Maggie and lurched violently off the bed, almost pushing Maggie off in the process. Maggie recovered herself as quickly as she could and followed Alex as she wobbled down the steps into her living area.

"Where are you going?" Maggie asked as they reached the door.

"Where do you think? I've got to find her." Alex was shouting.

Maggie's phone began to ring as she followed Alex out of the apartment. Seeing Winn's name on the screen Maggie answered it immediately.

"Sawyer."

"Maggie, we think we picked Kara up on radar. Is Alex awake yet?"

"Yeah she is. Where is she Winn?"

"We think she's at her apartment. A team is heading over there now but J'onn thinks it would be better if someone she knows gets there first. He's heading back now as well."

"Thanks Winn." She ended the call as she noticed the elevator door closing between herself and Alex.

"Dammit." She swore as she reached the door a second too late and hit out at the elevator before breaking out into a run down the stairs.

"Alex." She called as she reached the last flight of stairs and caught a glimpse of her girlfriend exiting the apartment block. She followed her out to the parking garage and managed to catch up to her as she was getting into her SUV, Maggie followed, pulling open the passenger door and pulling herself inside.

"What the hell Alex?"

Alex didn't respond but pulled out of her parking space.

"Winn thinks they have managed to trace Kara, they think she is at her apartment." Maggie informed Alex who nodded her head slightly, eyes focused on the road ahead.

The ride over to Kara's apartment was eventful. Alex was not in any fit state to be driving. By the time they arrived, Maggie had dug her fingernails into the underside of the passenger seat so hard that she was sure there would be permanent indentations in the leather.

Alex ran up the stairs, too impatient and on edge to wait for the elevator. She didn't knock, just barged right through the front door.

The cold air hit them both hard. Wind was blowing though the completely smashed window of the high rise. The apartment was trashed and there was glass everywhere. Maggie felt guilty. She had thought Alex had been exaggerating when she had described Kara's new apartment over the phone last night but she had been spot on. Dark and dingy. The opposite of Kara. There was nothing personal anywhere, just barely painted concrete walls. No photos, no art, not a drop of colour. There wasn't even a TV.

Maggie could make out Kara in her bed at the other side of her apartment and carefully followed Alex, stopping in the doorway to give them some space.

"Kara?" Alex called to her sister as she reached out and shook Kara's shoulder.

"Kara?" Louder this time and the shaking more forceful.

Sensing the rising panic, Maggie stepped closer to the sisters.

"She's freezing cold. Help me get her out of here." Alex told her as she put an arm under Kara and sat her up. Kara was limp in her arms and Maggie supported the other side of her. They struggled to get her to the elevator and back to the car.

In this neighbourhood, no one even batted an eyelid at two people loading an unconscious girl into the back of an SUV.


	7. Chapter 7

The ride back across town to the DEO was a blur. Alex sat in the back of the car, Kara lying across the seats, head in Alex's lap. Alex had thrown her jacket over her barely concious sister and Maggie had turned the heating right up in the car to try to start to defrost Kara.

She called Winn to let the DEO know they had found Kara and to ask them to prepare the medical bay for Supergirl. Keeping two fingers on Kara's neck to reassure herself the superhero was still alive, Alex rattled off a list of orders down the phone as Maggie forced her way through the city traffic.

Every sharp turn and pot hole was amplified in the backseat of the SUV but Kara remained unresponsive. Maggie screeched into the hidden entrance to the DEO parking lot and the medical team wrenched open the door to the car. Kara did not even stir when she was dragged out of the vehicle by the DEO medics and thrown onto a gurney, head lolling from side to side.

Alex watched helplessly as Kara was wheeled through the service corridors and into the medical bay, allowing herself to be pushed out of the way so that Dr Kemp and his team could assess Kara.

Alex stood, back flat against the wall, as the medics tended to her sister. They cleaned and dressed her wounds, pumped her full of antibiotics and started some IV fluids to keep her hydrated. When they had finished, a tech dressed her in a hospital gown before placing a warming blanket over her and setting out a chair for Alex to sit at her sister's bedside. The tech gave Alex a reassuring smile as she left her alone with Kara.

At some point, Winn had placed himself at Kara's bedside but Alex remained standing, staring blankly at her sister, trying to run through ways to fix her. Her ideas were becoming more nonsensical and she suddenly felt drained.

"Alex." Someone's voice cut through the fog in her brain.

"Alex." Somebody was shaking her gently, trying to get her attention but Alex couldn't pull herself out of her thoughts.

"Alex, please speak to me." It was Maggie, she sounded upset. Alex tried to find the strength to move away from the wall but as she did her legs gave out and she found herself grasping onto Maggie for support. Suddenly James was at the other side of her, his strong arms holding her up.

"Let's sit you down." James told her softly as he and Maggie gently steered her to the chair that Winn had vacated for her.

Once she was safely sat down, Maggie pulled up another chair next to her and took her hand.

"She's going to be okay you know." Maggie told her.

"Yeah." Alex whispered, eyes glued to Kara.

* * *

Alex stirred as the alarms on the bedside monitor started to beep. It was dark in the medical ward, only the dim glow of the sunlamps illuminated her sister. Alex had insisted they only kept them on a low setting, still unsure of how the solar energy would affect Kara.

Something heavy was resting on her arm, preventing her from standing up and investigating the alarms. Maggie was sleeping against her, her long curly hair spilling over Alex's chest. As gently as possible, Alex pushed Maggie into a more upright position and freed herself before rushing over to her sister's bedside, just as Dr Kemp also reached his patient.

Kara was coughing now. Her eyes were still closed but her hands were reaching for the IV lines in her arms, pulling at them until they dislodged.

"Kara. It's okay. You're okay." Alex reassured as she took her sister's flailing hands in her own, trying to prevent her causing any more damage.

Kara's eyes opened at the sound of Alex's voice, they were wide and panicked. She easily fought Alex off, removing herself from Alex's grip and continuing to pull at the medical equipment attached to her.

"We need to sedate her." Dr Kemp called from the other side of the bed.

Alex was about to argue but one of Kara's open hands caught her off guard, hitting her in the face and sending her flying backwards into a drip stand, hitting her head on the floor in the process.

For a second, everything was spinning from her vantage point on the floor. The blaring alarms were echoing and rattling around her head, amplifying the panic she felt even further. She managed to sit herself up and reached out to the bed to pull herself up, she felt a hand under her armpit, helping her to her feet. It was Maggie.

By the time she had stood up and regained her bearings, Dr Kemp had already drawn up the appropriate medication and Alex watched in dismay as he stabbed the needle into Kara's arm. Relief washed over her as the needle snapped off the syringe instead of breaking the superhero's skin. Kara had her powers, unfortunately that included super strength.

"Kara, please calm down." Alex begged as she took Kara's hand again.

Kara continued to lash out, her eyes were open now but seemed unfocused, not really seeing anything. Kara grabbed Alex's wrist tightly and Alex thought for sure she was going to break it.

"Kara. Snap out of it." Maggie was shouting now. "You're hurting Alex."

It was enough to trigger something in Kara's mind. Her hand released Alex and her arms ceased their uncoordinated efforts to defend herself. She did not settle completely though. Her breathing was shallow and uneven. Every other breath was a wheeze that resulted in a coughing fit.

"Help me sit her up." Alex called to Maggie as she pulled her sister into a sitting position and Dr Kemp moved the back of the bed electronically before grabbing some pillows to assist her further.

"Kara, you're okay. "Alex was now rubbing soothing circles into her sister's back.

Kara coughed more effectively, managing to clear her throat properly, causing her to wince in pain.

"It hurts." Kara finally managed to tell them, her voice faint and raspy.

"Where does it hurt?"

"My leg." Kara was barely audible.

Alex gently lifted the sheet covering Kara's legs to reveal her bandaged thigh. Blood was oozing through the dressing.

"Crap, I thought you had your powers back." Alex muttered as she studied the monitor displaying Kara's vital signs, her solar radiation levels were 90%.

"Kara, I'm going to clean your leg and redress the wound for you." Alex told her as she went to grab some equipment. She noticed Maggie was now hovering uncertainly in the doorway.

"I'm going to go and grab some coffee." Maggie said as Alex approached her.

"Thanks Maggie." Alex whispered as she was pulled into a tight hug. Maggie then kissed her hair before leaving the ward.

"Text me if you need me." She called over her shoulder.

* * *

When Maggie returned to the medical ward, Kara was asleep and the only other person in the bay was Dr Kemp.

"I told Agent Danvers to go and get some rest." Dr Kemp whispered from the desk he was writing at.

Maggie thanked the doctor and quietly left the ward and set about finding her girlfriend.

She didn't have to look far. The light in the lab was on and through the window Maggie could see that Alex was hunched over a microscope.

"You don't look like you are resting." Maggie scolded as she placed a cup of breakroom coffee next to Alex and opened a bag of Cheetos.

Alex eyed the bag suspiciously but dipped her hand in the bag anyway when it was offered to her.

"You don't eat crap like this." Alex said as she took another handful of Cheetos.

"It's three o'clock in the morning and I've barely slept in the last forty-eight hours. I'll eat whatever I can get my hands on. Plus, it was the best that Winn's stash of junk food could offer. I may have had to break into his locker to get my hands on them." Maggie smiled.

Alex grinned back at Maggie and then turned back to the microscope.

"What are you working on?" Maggie asked as she wandered around the lab.

"Just analysing some samples taken from Kara."

"Do you maybe want to take a break?"

Maggie was surprised when Alex turned the microscope off and jumped down from the stool she had been perched on.

"I'm not making any progress anyway." Alex told her gloomily as she helped herself to more Cheetos. "I'm going to go and check on Kara."

"Kara's asleep. Why don't I drive you home? You can get a shower, something proper to eat and grab a couple of hours of sleep." Maggie reached out to stop Alex from leaving the lab.

"No. I need to be here in case something happens."

"Alex, you're tired, please. I know you are worried about Kara but I'm worried about you." Maggie tried to meet Alex's eyes but her girlfriend was staring dejectedly at the floor.

Maggie wrapped her arms around Alex and didn't let go until she felt her relax. Then she took Alex by the hand and led her out into the corridors of the DEO towards the sleeping quarters. At the end of the block of rooms she pulled out a key and opened the final door.

"Where'd you get that from?" Alex, who hadn't been paying attention until now, asked.

"J'onn. In case you wouldn't go home. He called it the Presidential Suite." Maggie shrugged and led Alex into the small, windowless room which contained a double bed, a desk and an ensuite on the far side. "I guess he was joking." She added as her eyes took in the room.

Alex sat down on the bed and slipped off her shoes before Maggie gently helped her under the blanket, kissing her softly before turning to the door.

"Where are you going?"

"I was going to go back to Kara's apartment and grab her some things that she might need. Do you want me to grab anything from your place?"

"Can you stay with me?" Alex whispered.

"If that's what you need."

Alex wriggled and made room for Maggie, letting Maggie take her in her arms again.

"I'll stay until you are asleep." Maggie whispered as she snuggled into her girlfriend.

It was Maggie who fell asleep first.


	8. Chapter 8

Kara recognised the feeling. The blinding pain in her skull, the burning behind her eyes and the pounding of her heart. Her heat vision. The pressure kept building up but she could not open her eyes to release it. She could feel her heart banging against her rib cage, getting faster by the second, dangerously fast.

The intermittent beeping of a machine had turned into a constant alarm and it was making her headache worse.

Somewhere nearby she could hear people talking but couldn't make out what they were saying. It was like she was still under water and no matter what she did, she couldn't unscramble the noise.

Unable to open her eyes she felt the burning pain spread throughout her limbs as if trying to find an alternative route out of her body. She wanted to scream it out but she could not open her mouth.

Her reality was starting to unravel again.

A final wave of pain swept over her entire body and then she found herself swallowed by the cold.

* * *

Maggie woke up cold and alone just before 8 o'clock in the morning. The spot next to her was cold, leaving her wondering if Alex had managed to get any sleep at all.

She took a quick shower before heading to the medical bay where she expected to find Alex. She had almost made it to the bay when she heard a loud bang that sent her ducking for cover in the unfamiliar environment of the DEO. An alarm began to sound.

Unsure of what to do, she followed a group of agents who she assumed were responding to the situation. They led her straight to Alex's lab.

"It's alright, false alarm." A vaguely familiar agent was shouting.

"Someone shut that damn alarm up." Another agent was yelling.

When the crowd dispersed, Maggie finally laid eyes on Alex. Her black DEO top had a hole burnt into the shoulder and her face was lightly coated in soot. The workbench that Maggie had found Alex working at in the early hours of that morning was also scorched and broken equipment was strewn everywhere.

"What happened Danvers?" Maggie asked once the alarm had stopped its screeching.

"I can't figure out what's wrong with her." Alex was heavy-handedly clearing broken glass into a bin.

"Is Kara alright?" Maggie asked, worried that something had happened whilst she had been asleep.

"She's still unconscious. She hasn't woken up since last night." Alex sighed as she sent another broken beaker crashing therapeutically into the bin. "Her wounds haven't healed, even though the solar energy in her cells has been restored and she's at massive risk of infection because we can't get any IV access for antibiotics." Another piece of glass was thrown into the bin. "And even if we could get a needle through her skin without exposing her to more harm, we don't have any antibiotics anywhere near strong enough to affect Kara, especially with some of her powers restored." Alex finished, sending a final beaker flying through the air and crashing into the now overflowing bin.

"If I don't figure this out soon she'll die Maggie." Alex's voice was no more than a whisper.

"You'll figure it out." Maggie told her firmly as she snaked her arms around Alex from behind and tucked her face into the crook of Alex's neck.

"So, what were you working on that caused that explosion?"

"It wasn't an explosion." Alex freed herself from Maggie and set about resetting one of the machines she had been using.

"It sounded like an explosion to me."

"I'm trying to stabilise Kara's cells." Seeing Maggie's blank look, she continued. "Something is affecting her ability to store and process sunlight. I think it is why her powers have been so unreliable and would account for the sudden surges and depletion of solar energy in her cells. I'm basically trying to synthesise something to reverse it." Alex continued to fiddle with the machine.

"So, what exploded?"

Alex glared at her girlfriend but explained anyway.

"When I added the compound I was working on to the sample of Kara's blood it reacted badly and started to bubble. I was trying to stop it but I knocked the sunlamp over and it kind of, well it…"

"Exploded." Maggie finished for her.

Alex did not look impressed so Maggie went back to cleaning the workbench.

"You don't have to do that." Alex told her. "Go home if you want to."

"Don't you dare do that, Alex. Don't start shutting me out." Maggie shouted as she threw down the cloth she was using.

Alex flinched at the sound of Maggie's raised voice.

"I'm not."

"Good. Because it's not going to work." Maggie was clearly upset and retreated to the door.

"Where are you going?" Alex called after her.

"I'm going to sit with Kara. I won't be much help here and I don't want to get in your way." Maggie told her as she left the lab, casting a last reassuring look at Alex. "Just please be more careful."

Maggie took a deep breath to calm herself down before turning left and heading for the medical bay, only to walk straight into Winn.

They both apologised simultaneously.

"Are you okay Maggie?" Winn asked awkwardly.

"Yeah, I'm just heading to see Kara."

"I've just come from there. She's still unconscious."

"Alex is working on it." Maggie reassured him.

"Yeah, I know, she was already in the lab when I came in this morning." Winn told her as his phone pinged in his hand. "I've got to go." He gestured wildly at his phone and then down the corridor before heading towards the command centre.

"See you later." Maggie called as she set off back down the hall.

When she got to the medical bay she hesitated slightly when she saw that James was with Kara. His head was bowed as his hands clasped around one of hers.

Maggie sat herself in a plastic chair on the other side of Kara.

"You okay Olsen?" Maggie asked after a minute.

James lifted his head but did not look at Maggie, he kept his gaze focused on Kara.

"I've just been thinking." James told her as he leaned back in his chair slightly.

Maggie remained silent, allowing James to continue.

"We've been distant ever since she found out I was Guardian and now..."

"James."

"I messed up our friendship. I didn't listen, I just dismissed her concerns."

"James, she's going to be okay." Maggie managed to sound a lot more confident than she actually was.

"We don't know that. She has never looked so human. What if…"

"No, James, please. Alex will fix this."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, watching Kara sleep, flinching at any change in the vitals on the monitor above Kara's head.

James gently placed Kara's hand back on the bed and stood to leave.

"I've got a meeting to get to." He informed her as he pulled on his jacket. "Let me know if anything changes."

"You got it."

Maggie settled back into her chair. Her gaze drifted back to Kara in the bed. She looked small. The standard hospital gown seemed to swamp her. She was definitely looking thinner, her face especially. Her cheekbones more defined, amplified by how pale she was. Her hair was tangled and hung limp and dull on the pillow. Maggie reached across to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear and off her face.

She pulled put her phone and called her Sergeant to let him know that she would be out in the field following a lead for the day and then she settled down to sift through her work emails whilst watching over Kara.

* * *

It had been four hours when Maggie had finally given up on getting any more work done. She was contemplating going to check on Alex when Kara began to stir in the bed.

"Alex?" Kara's eyes were open and frantically searching the room.

"Kara, it's Maggie. You're in the medical bay. Do you remember?"

Kara's eyes settled on Maggie and she nodded.

"Big alien."

"Yeah, big alien." Maggie smiled and let out a sigh of relief.

"Where's Alex?"

"She's just in her lab. James and Winn were also here but they had to get to work." Maggie explained as she watched Kara struggle to follow what she was saying.

"I'll go and grab Alex for you." Maggie told her and walked towards the exit.

She was almost at the door when she heard a pained gasp from the bed behind her. Kara had swung her legs over the side of the bed and was now standing, dangerously close to falling over.

"Woah, hold on. Hold on." Maggie shouted as she ran back to Kara's side, reaching around her back, trying to steady the wobbling superhero.

Her efforts to stop Kara falling were in vain. Kara continued to make uncoordinated steps until she tripped, dragging Maggie down with her in the process. Both women hit the floor.


	9. Chapter 9

Maggie reluctantly opened her eyes. Piercing blue eyes, sparkling with tears, met her own dark ones. Kara was sat on the floor, leaning over her, face full of worry.

Groaning loudly, Maggie sat herself up, mentally checking herself over for any injuries that may have occurred when the weight of a fully grown Kryptonian had landed on her. Feeling no real pain, she got to her feet and offered her hand to Kara, who seemed to hesitate slightly before taking it and using it to steady herself as she too got to her feet.

Maggie tried to steer Kara back into the hospital bed but Kara had other ideas and tried to take herself in the opposite direction.

"Kara, what are you doing?" Maggie asked as she held Kara up, trying to avoid them both falling over again.

"I need to pee," Kara told her desperately.

Maggie's brain stalled for a second, unsure of what she should do.

"I'll go and get Alex for you."

"No time." Kara continued to try to limp her way across the medical bay to the bathroom.

Maggie walked next to her, taking some of the weight off Kara's injured leg whilst also trying to hold the back of Kara's gown closed to try to preserve her dignity.

"I'll be okay from here," Kara told Maggie as they reached the bathroom door that had only just been repaired from Kara's last encounter with it.

Maggie walked her all the way to the toilet just to make sure that Kara was alright.

"Okay. Just yell when you've finished and I'll walk you back." Maggie shut the door and hovered awkwardly outside the bathroom as she texted Alex to let her know that her sister was awake.

"Kara? Are you okay?" She shouted through the door after a few minutes of silence.

The sound of retching greeted her as she put her ear to the door to listen.

"Kara?" Still no response from the other side of the door.

"Kara, I'm coming in," she warned as she entered the bathroom.

Kara was perched on the edge of the toilet, reaching out to the edge of the sink.

"I'm fine," she told Maggie, leaning on the sink as she washed her hands.

"Yeah, sure you are." Maggie handed her a paper towel which Kara used to dry her hands and then to wipe her mouth.

"Let's get you back in bed before Alex catches you."

Kara managed to hobble back into bed without further incident just in time.

"Kara!" Alex shouted from the doorway. "I'm so glad you're awake." She ran over to Kara and hugged her, causing Kara to gasp in pain.

"I'm sorry." Alex quickly released her sister, devastated to have hurt Kara.

"A taste of my own medicine. It's usually me giving out rib crushing hugs." Kara tried to joke, attempting to bring a smile to her sister's face but her voice was hoarse and she didn't manage to convince Alex that she was alright.

"Do you want to try something to drink?"

Kara nodded her head uncertainly, worried that she would be sick if she attempted to drink. Alex didn't notice her reluctance as she went to the water cooler and brought her a plastic cup of water.

Maggie watched silently as Alex coaxed Kara into drinking. Kara managed half the cup of water before she finally pushed the glass away and settled back into the bed, exhausted from the effort she had exerted in the last ten minutes.

Alex and Maggie watched Kara fight to keep her eyes open for a couple of minutes, before she finally lost her battle with sleep.

Satisfied that Kara was comfortable, Alex turned to the monitor above her bed and started pushing buttons to look at the records for the last few hours.

Maggie eyed her girlfriend suspiciously as she worked. She had changed out of her singed black long-sleeved top and into a DEO polo shirt. There were exactly three flesh coloured plasters on her left arm and one on her right. Alex was fidgeting nervously with the hem of her polo shirt as she made her way over to the computer.

"I thought I told you to be more careful." Maggie whispered to Alex, pointing at the plasters on her arms.

Maggie watched Alex's eyes fall. She was nearly as pale as Kara and her eyes were dark and glazed over. Exhausted was the word that came to mind, except that Alex would not keep still.

"Are you okay Alex?"

As frustrated as Maggie was with Alex, she couldn't help placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Maggie was shocked when Alex jumped away from her touch, having been startled out of her thoughts.

"Sorry, I was just thinking," Alex apologised as she noticed the odd look Maggie was sending her way.

Maggie waited for a further explanation but didn't receive one. Finally, she gave up and decided to give Alex some time alone with Kara.

"I'm heading to the precinct for a bit. I'll swing by Kara's apartment on the way back and grab her some stuff," she told Alex as she got her belongings together.

Alex nodded, wrapping her arms around herself.

"I'll call you when I'm on my way back." Maggie kissed Alex on the cheek as she left.

* * *

Kara was jolted out of her sleep by a strangled cry. She sat up suddenly, causing immense pain in her abdomen but she pushed through it, looking around for the source of the noise.

Alex was seemingly asleep at the desk across the room. Her head was resting on her crossed arms. Kara watched her silently for a while. Alex twitched and tensed a couple of times but seemed to settle again so Kara decided to let her sister continue to rest.

She continued to watch her sleep from her bed across the room.

She had seen more of Alex in the last five days than she had in the last month. It wasn't Alex's fault, not really. It was Kara's. Kara couldn't fit herself around Alex's new life with Maggie. She was no longer the centre of her sister's attention and Kara was finding it easier to pull away than adjust.

It was the same with her relationships with Winn and James, especially Winn. She was no longer his best friend, seemingly she had been replaced by James. In fact, she had barely spoken to either of them recently and she missed them both.

Someone entered the medical bay, dragging Kara from her thoughts. It was Maggie and she had food. Kara glanced up at the clock on the wall, it was half past five in the evening, it felt like later.

"How are you feeling?" Maggie asked her as she made her way over to Kara. She sounded loud compared to the previous silence and Kara put a finger to her lips, pointing at her sleeping sister with her other hand.

Maggie mouthed an apology as she perched herself on the edge of Kara's bed, placed a bag on the floor and opened the pizza box.

"Do you want to try to eat something?" she whispered.

Kara's eyes seemed to brighten slightly as she helped herself to the biggest slice and immediately took a bite.

Maggie smiled as she saw a flash of the old Kara.

"How long has she been asleep?" Maggie asked Kara between mouthfuls of pizza.

Kara shrugged in response as she helped herself to another piece of pizza.

"She was asleep when I woke up about ten minutes ago."

Maggie nodded and took another slice of pizza for herself.

"I stopped by your apartment. I've got your phone and charger, some pyjamas and some wash stuff," Maggie told her, pulling Kara's phone from the bag on the floor and handing it to Kara.

"Thanks Maggie."

"Anything for a Danvers," she winked back.

"I've just seen Winn, he's on his way to see you, he's just finishing a report."

Kara was now just picking at the cheese on her second piece of pizza.

"Do you not like it?"

"I feel a bit full."

Maggie's face showed mock disbelief and Kara smiled slightly.

"I'm just glad you've managed to eat something, I was getting worried about you."

Kara reached across and put the mauled piece of pizza into the lid of the box, wincing in pain as she stretched.

"Are you okay?" Maggie asked, reaching across the bed to take Kara's hand.

"I'm fine." Kara whispered harshly as she waved her hands at Maggie, signalling her to leave her alone.

"Sorry." Kara apologised as Maggie looked upset.

"I just forgot. I'm not used to pain. I appreciate your concern."

A groan from across the room broke the tension and Kara and Maggie watched as Alex woke up, neck aching from her uncomfortable sleeping position.

"Is there any left for me?" Alex asked pointing at the pizza as she made her way to Kara's bedside.

"Help yourself," Maggie smiled, relieved that Alex looked a bit fresher after her nap.

"Are you okay?"

Kara was relieved when that question was interrupted by Winn who was knocking on the open door at the other side of the room.

"Can we come in?" he called.

The three women nodded simultaneously with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

Winn entered the room backwards, carrying one end of a beaten-up couch that Alex recognised from the breakroom. James was on the other end of the couch, doing the majority of the lifting.

The pair placed the couch at the side of the bed and Winn then grabbed equipment off the sofa and began setting it up.

"I brought entertainment," Winn told them as he pressed a couple of buttons on the projector and pulled down the portable projector screen.

Kara instantly recognised the musical that had begun to play.

"Does J'onn know you've stolen this?" Alex asked as she flung herself down on the comfy couch.

James nodded as he handed out some ready-made bags of popcorn.

Winn went around the room turning the lights off in the bay and they all settled down to watch the film. Alex snuggled into Maggie on the couch, with Winn perched on the far end, Kara was in her bed and James was sat backwards on a plastic chair.

Alex was snoring softly before the first song was over but Kara made it to the end credits before falling asleep completely.

Maggie, who couldn't move more than one of her arms due to Alex sleeping on her, waved goodbye to James and Winn as they left for the night before settling to try and get some sleep herself.

* * *

It was the middle of the night when the alarms began to shriek, waking Alex and Maggie from their sleep. Kara was shivering violently; the whole bed was shaking from her movement. Her eyes were screwed shut, her hands were over her ears and she was covered in sweat.

They were at her side instantly. The monitor above her head told them that everything was wrong. Her heart was beating ridiculously fast, her temperature was high and the levels of solar radiation in her cells was plummeting.

Maggie turned some lights on as Alex ran to the computer and began scrolling through data, jotting down numbers and quickly doing some calculations.

"Kara, you're going to be okay," Maggie stroked her back, trying to calm her down a bit. Kara opened her eyes at the touch but they were glowing red, causing Maggie to stumble backwards out of the way just fast enough to avoid a blast of heat vision.

Kara screamed in agony and the alarms became even more frantic.

"Kara, close your eyes," Alex shouted from across the room as she placed her finger on a biometric lock and opened the drug cupboard grabbing the vials she needed.

Maggie went back to the hero's side, holding onto one of her shaking hands.

Alex was soon back at her sister's bedside, arranging equipment on the table next to her. She then took Kara's other hand in hers, indicating to Maggie what she was about to do.

"Kara this is going to hurt, I'm sorry, try to keep still."

Alex proceeded to insert a needle into her sister's hand, taking as many samples of her blood as she could before placing a cannula into the vein and attaching the infusion she had just prepared.

They both watched Kara for any signs of improvement.

Eventually, Kara's heart rate began to slow down and she was only shivering slightly. Her solar radiation levels held steady at 16% and she managed to open her eyes slightly without incinerating anything.

"I'm sorry." She whispered to Maggie.

"You missed me." Maggie pointed at the scorch mark on the wall behind her.

"Are you still in pain?"

"Not really. It was my ears, I couldn't control my hearing. I'm just tired now," Kara yawned on cue.

Alex and Maggie held her hands until she fell asleep.

"I'm going to get these new samples to my lab and see if I can get anything new from them," Alex told Maggie once Kara was asleep. "She should be okay for now, I'm going to keep the sunlamps turned off but call me if her levels go above 30%."

Maggie nodded her understanding before watching her girlfriend leave the medical bay.


	10. Chapter 10

Sweat was pouring out of Kara when she woke up, she desperately needed a shower. Reorienting herself to her surroundings she spotted Maggie on the couch, there was an open book abandoned on her chest and her eyes were closed but she didn't really look asleep.

"Maggie?" Kara whispered, not wanting to wake her up if she was actually sleeping.

"Yeah?" Maggie whispered without opening her eyes, she sounded half asleep.

"Do you know when Alex will be back?"

"No, she said she was going to process the blood samples she took from you but that was hours ago." Maggie opened her eyes and glanced at her watch. "Actually, it was five hours ago."

"Oh. Okay," Kara stuttered.

Maggie watched Kara mess with her phone for a while; typing, deleting and then retyping a text to Alex before giving up and letting the phone drop back onto the mattress.

"She didn't say when she'd be back?"

"No."

Maggie watched as Kara's expression darkened even more and she curled herself right into the bed.

"Is there something you need?"

Kara shook her head and buried her face into a pillow, but not before Maggie saw the tears spilling down her cheeks.

"Kara?" Maggie placed a hand on the younger woman's shoulder. "What's wrong?"

She was met with silence.

"Are you in pain? Do you want me to grab a medic?"

Maggie got up to go and find some help, but as she did, she heard Kara's muffled response.

"I miss her."

Maggie felt her heart sink.

"I'll go and get her for you."

Kara pulled herself into a sitting position and wiped her tears on her hand.

"No, it's okay, I'm being pathetic," she sniffed. "I know she's trying to figure out what's wrong with me."

Maggie handed Kara some tissues and watched silently as Kara pulled herself together and began to pick at a loose strand on the sleeve of her gown.

"Hey Kara? What do you think is wrong with you?" Maggie asked cautiously, not wanting to upset Kara further.

Kara shrugged gently and continued to fiddle with her gown.

"It feels like I'm being drained of energy and everything seems kind of dull and faded."

"Do you remember when this all started?" Maggie probed.

Kara shook her head violently and made a move to get off the bed, but Maggie managed to intercept her and gently helped her stand up.

"I need a shower," Kara told her as she went to pick up the bag Maggie had brought from her apartment. Maggie got to the bag before she did and slung it over her shoulder as she helped Kara walk to the bathroom.

Kara stumbled free when they got to the door.

"Thanks." Kara told her, taking the bag from Maggie, shutting the door in her face and locking it.

Maggie took the hint and sat herself on the couch with her laptop and waited for Kara to reappear.

She quickly sent a message to Alex to tell her that Kara wanted to see her and then set about searching the NCPD database for some kind of inspiration.

The images flashing in front of her were all starting to blur into one by the time Kara emerged from the bathroom. She was wearing flannel pyjama pants and a white tank top with the word dream printed on it, hair damp and dangling limply down her back. Kara didn't move from the doorway, instead she clung to the wooden frame, her bag dropping to the floor dramatically.

Maggie slammed her laptop shut and ran over to support Kara.

"Sorry," she managed to mumble as Maggie linked her arm to steady her as they made their way back across the bay.

"Can I sit on the couch for a bit?"

"I don't know. Alex wanted to measure your solar radiation levels, I think the sun bed is doing that."

"Please, I've been in that bed for the best part of two days. It isn't comfortable."

Maggie couldn't argue with Kara, especially not when she looked so pathetic.

"Fine, but if Alex gets mad…"

"Then it was my idea." Kara finished for her as Maggie eased her onto the couch.

Maggie grabbed a blanket and placed it over Kara.

"I need to go and call my boss and then I want to see if Winn is in yet, I need his help with my laptop. Do you think you'll be okay for a bit?"

"Of course, I really don't need babysitting," Kara rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, sure you don't," Maggie scoffed. "Please don't get up on your own. Call me and I'll come straight back."

"I'll behave, I promise."

Kara grabbed her phone as Maggie left and instantly pulled up the news to check if there were any reports on Supergirl.

The pictures of her being spat out of the massive alien's mouth had gone viral and she cringed, quickly skipping through them, looking for any articles on her absence since the incident. She didn't find any.

She threw her phone down in frustration but as she did she felt a familiar ache in her ears followed by a ringing sound. Her hearing made a sudden and unwelcome return.

The initial sound was overwhelming, but then she seemed to gain some semblance of control. She tried to listen for Alex but she couldn't hear her so she tuned into Maggie and Winn and the tail end of what had clearly been a conversation about her.

"Do you want me to check in on her whilst you search our databases?"

"I think she might rather be by herself for a little bit. I think she fed up, especially of me. At least she looks a little better, she was so ill last night…"

Kara tuned out again, she didn't need reminding of how she had nearly set Maggie on fire last night.

Picking up one of the magazines James had left for her, she tried to distract herself. The words on the glossy page seemed to be jumping around and she couldn't summon enough concentration to get through more than a paragraph without inducing a headache. She threw the magazine back on the pile, retrieved her phone and spent a few minutes trying to write a text to her sister but she was having the same problem with typing as she was with reading.

She thought about calling Alex but didn't want to disturb anything important. Winn and James were both working, Lena was at a conference across the country and she definitely didn't feel up to a conversation with Eliza. She had no one to talk to.

Giving up on reality, she picked a random comedy from her Netflix list to try to numb her mind.

* * *

The dark circles under Alex's eyes were back with a vengeance when Maggie found her working in her lab. She watched her studying some data on her computer for a couple of minutes before interrupting her.

"Alex?"

"I got your text. I'll go and see her in a minute." Alex didn't even turn around to look at Maggie.

"Actually, maybe leave it a bit longer, she feels like we are babysitting her."

"You left her on her own?" Alex finally turned on her chair to look at Maggie.

Maggie nodded, "You didn't come back and there's something I've got to go and do. I'll be no more than a couple of hours."

"Is she okay?" Alex asked as she got to her feet and began to turn off her equipment.

"Stop," Maggie grabbed her arm lightly. "She's still in pain but nothing compared to last night. As I said, I think she just needs a bit of space."

Alex started fidgeting.

"Why don't you walk me out? We can get some breakfast for Kara, she's not eaten yet this morning and she loves that doughnut stand on the corner. Plus, I think it'll do you some good to get some fresh air."

Alex nodded silently, grabbing her jacket from the back of her chair and shrugging it on.

They walked out of the DEO linked in each others arms. Alex felt almost normal as she felt the spring sun hit her face. She let Maggie lead her down the crowded street and order her a coffee and a box of a dozen doughnuts to take back to the DEO.

"Make sure Winn gets one, I owe him." Maggie kissed Alex goodbye and handed her the doughnuts.

* * *

Maggie kept to the shadows of the alley. Two figures were huddled together at the far end of the alleyway and they didn't notice Maggie sneaking up on them, gun leading the way.

"NCPD." She announced herself as she pressed the gun into the back of the taller alien.

"I suggest you leave now," she shouted to the other figure who quickly took her advice, running in the opposite direction.

When she was sure they were alone, she pulled down the alien's hood, jerking its neck backwards and slamming him into the wall so hard that he dropped to his knees.

"What are you selling today?" she barked as she began to search the suitcase on the floor.

The case was packed full of pills, she threw it closed and started to frisk the alien. She found what she had come for in the pocket of his coat. Two small pots, each containing a tiny grey worm, wriggling around aimlessly in their containers.

"Where did you get these?" She spat, waving the pots in front of his face.

When he didn't respond she pulled out her phone to call Winn.

"Winn, can you get me an agent to pick me up? I've got a prisoner of interest to the DEO, I'm at the back of the market just off Jackson Street."

"Copy that, I'm sending someone now."

She ended the call and pulled the alien to his feet and tried to cuff him. The alien was not in the mood to cooperate. He pushed her to the floor and kicked her in the face but Maggie reacted quickly and kicked him back, managing to trip him up. She threw herself on top of him and cuffed him.

"I've got plenty of friends that'll make you talk," she told him as she began to walk the alien back to the main street, wiping blood from her nose as she did.


	11. Chapter 11

There was not enough makeup in the world to hide the black eye, busted nose and split lip that Maggie was currently sporting, and Maggie really wasn't the type to carry around make up. She splashed cold water on her face and wiped the dry blood from her chin, before teasing her fingers through her hair to try and strategically place it to hide the worst of the bruising. She checked over her appearance for a final time and straightened the collar of her jacket as she exited the DEO locker room, on a mission to continue her interrogation of the alien drug dealer.

"Detective Sawyer?" J'onn appeared, blocking her path to the holding cells. "Have you got a minute?"

"Yeah, sure."

Maggie followed J'onn uncertainly to his office.

"Take a seat."

Maggie was about to suggest that she would rather stand, but the look on The Director's face suggested that she probably shouldn't argue.

"Have you had that checked out?" J'onn pointed to her head, his concern genuine.

Maggie shook her head as she settled into a chair.

"What happened?"

Maggie shrugged, "Foot to the face."

J'onn remained silent and Maggie shrunk under his gaze, feeling compelled to fill the silence.

"Those worms, I think one of them turned into the alien that Supergirl fought the other day at the plaza."

"Really?" J'onn raised his eyebrow.

"It's only a theory. We had a case when I was first starting out with the Science Division where a group of science majors at National City University were genetically engineering similar looking worms to see who could turn them into the biggest and most diverse creature."

"I don't remember that."

"The best the students could manage was no bigger than a cat and we only found out because a homeowner shot it when it began to try to eat the family Labrador."

J'onn's eyebrow was in the air again but Maggie continued.

"None of those students ever created anything like that creature, but just over six weeks ago Supergirl threw a grey, humanoid creature with blue freckles through an abandoned subway station. When the dust cleared, Supergirl reported that the alien had vanished and it hasn't been seen since.

"You think this is the same thing?"

"I don't know, but the students at the time were synthesising all kinds of dangerous things to try to manipulate their worms."

"And that could be what is making her sick?"

"I don't know. All I know is that we need to start analysing those worms," Maggie got to her feet and followed J'onn out of the office.

"Where are you going Detective?" J'onn asked as Maggie started to head towards Alex's lab. "The med bay is this way," J'onn signalled the opposite way down the corridor.

Maggie followed J'onn until they reached the now overly familiar medical ward, hesitating in the doorway. Kara was still on the couch, curled up on her side, fast asleep. She followed J'onn to a nurse who was taking stock of the medications.

"Louise? Could you please take a look at Detective Sawyer for me?"

"Of course, come and take a seat Detective." The young woman replied cheerfully with a smile.

Maggie allowed Louise to lead her to an exam chair at the opposite side of the bay to where Kara was sleeping. J'onn left them alone to give Maggie some privacy and went to sit with Kara.

"So, what happened Detective?" The nurse was now pulling on a set of gloves as she walked back to Maggie.

"I got kicked in the face," Maggie mumbled, wincing as Louise gently touched her nose.

"How is Supergirl?" Maggie asked as the medic continued to poke at her face.

"No change. She's been asleep for about two hours, since Agent Danvers brought her some doughnuts."

"Agent Danvers didn't stay?"

"No," Louise replied as she removed her gloves and reached into her pocket for her pen torch. "I'm just going to shine this light into your eyes, just look straight ahead."

Maggie did as she was told, flinching slightly as the bright light hit her eyes.

"Okay, I just need to ask you a couple of questions."

Maggie nodded.

"What year is it?"

"2017."

"What month?"

"March."

"Where are we right now?"

Maggie rolled her eyes.

"Detective?" Louise prompted.

"The DEO."

"And the name of the president?"

"Marsdin."

"Okay, I'll leave it at that. You don't seem to have a head injury and I don't think there will be any long-term damage. Do you want some ice for your eye?"

"No thanks," Maggie shook her head as she stood up, watching as J'onn gently placed Kara, who was still asleep, on the bed.

"Louise?" Maggie whispered. "Is it bad that she keeps falling asleep?"

"Well as I understand it, Kryptonians don't actually need sleep but with the constant draining of her solar energy she is practically human. Sleep is an important part of the healing process and it's not uncommon for patients to sleep a lot." The nurse's voice remained upbeat and Maggie found herself slightly reassured.

"Thank you," she told her as she headed over to J'onn.

Maggie joined J'onn in watching over Kara in silence, both of them comforted by the superhero's steady breathing. The sudden creaking of the door startled them and they both turned to see Alex hurrying towards them, concern plastered across her face.

"Winn told me what happened," Alex took Maggie's chin in her hand, fingers lightly grazing her bruised cheek. "Why didn't you tell me what you were doing?"

Maggie shrugged, eyes now firmly fixed on the floor.

"Don't worry Alex, I've already lectured her for her recklessness." J'onn reassured, winking at Maggie before he left the med bay.

"Did Winn tell you about the worms?" Maggie asked as she sat down.

"Yeah, he did," Alex stayed stood up, towering over Maggie, hands on her hips. "Right before he told me that you went into a dark alley alone and got into a fight with an alien to get your hands on them."

Maggie relaxed into the couch, pain washing over her features as she did.

Alex's frown softened.

"I'm going to start running some tests on the worms and the body of that thing, whatever it was, from the other day."

Maggie was too tired to argue as she watched Alex disappear back into the corridors of the DEO, leaving her alone with Kara again.

* * *

It was happening again. The burning behind her eyes as the feeling of cold swept over her.

Kara tried to calm herself down, to let the heat behind her eyes dissipate, but no amount of soothing deep breaths could stop the build-up of power.

Struggling to keep her eyes closed, she listened for anyone else in the room. One vaguely familiar heartbeat punctuated the silence.

"Get away from me!" She shouted her warning to the person in the room, eyes still closed.

Maggie ran towards the bed, it looked and sounded as if Kara was in the throes of a nightmare. Her eyes were screwed tightly shut and she was writhing around on the bed.

"Kara!" Maggie shook Kara's shoulder, "Wake up."

Maggie watched as Kara's eyes glowed red under her eye lids and she began to violently shiver at super speed.

"Please, I can't keep my eyes closed, I'm going to hurt you." Kara shouted desperately.

Maggie reluctantly let go of Kara and ran from the medical bay.

Kara listened to Maggie run and as soon as she heard the door shut she opened her eyes, releasing a massive blast of heat vision, she couldn't stop it. The beam of solar energy shot through the disabled sun light emitters above her, and hit the ceiling tiles and light fittings, sending them crashing to the ground.

A metal support pole landed on her injured leg, causing her to cry out in pain and roll off the bed. The beams of heat vision followed her path to the ground, solar energy burning into the wall and then the floor. Desperate to stop herself, Kara began to hit her head repeatedly on the floor and eventually her heat vision finally began to fizzle out. She didn't stop banging her head until the concrete was cracked and the world around her began to fade away.


	12. Chapter 12

The silence and darkness were of little comfort to the broken Kryptonian but neither was the chaos or the noise that kept breaking through the nothingness.

Just when she thought her suffering might finally be over, strong arms were rolling her onto her back and picking her up off the floor. It felt like there was cotton wool in her ears but she could hear the fire alarm blaring through it, amplifying her already pounding headache.

"Open your eyes." The voice sounded familiar.

Kara shook her head and tried to cover her eyes with her arms, terrified of the further damage she could cause.

"Kara, it's J'onn, there is no one else in the room, you won't hurt me." He reassured her, as if he could read her mind.

Kara stopped struggling and opened her eyes slowly, letting out a sigh of relief when no heat vision was unleashed from them.

J'onn set her down on the couch, helping her to sit up. He placed pillows behind her head as he signalled to the people peering through the door that they could enter the remains of the medical bay, just as the fire alarm ceased its screaming.

Kara watched as Alex, Maggie and Winn approached her cautiously, Alex leading the way. The trio got about halfway to her side when Kara's x-ray vision suddenly turned them into walking skeletons.

"Please, it's not safe."

Alex recognised the look in Kara's eyes, like she was looking straight through her and ran to the bag on the floor, frantically rummaging through its contents until she found what she needed.

"Put these on." Alex handed Kara her lead lined glasses and watched as Kara's shaking hands fumbled with them, eventually placing them on her face.

"Thank you." Kara's words were shaky but relief was evident in her broken voice.

The five of them looked around the smouldering medical bay at the destruction Kara's heat vision had caused. There was a hole in the ceiling, plaster crumbling from the wall and the floor was cracked where Kara's head had repeatedly hit it. The sun lamps on the bed were smashed, the glass from the lights was scattered everywhere, crunching under Alex's boots as she paced the room.

"I think we should move you to the desert base. They still have a full array of equipment over there." J'onn's voice broke the silence that had fallen over them.

"No," Alex stopped her pacing and moved towards J'onn. "She needs to be here; all my best lab equipment is here. I'm close to finding a treatment, even closer now that we have a possible contaminant."

Kara, Winn and Maggie all watched awkwardly as Alex squared up to J'onn.

"How can you even suggest moving her? She's safer here. We have some older versions of the sun bed, we have everything we need to help her right here."

J'onn took Alex's arm and dragged her into the office, letting the door slam behind him.

"Can you still hear them?" Winn asked as he moved to sit next to Kara on the couch.

"No," Kara lied.

The three of them watched the angry gestures being exchanged through the windows of the office as Kara strained her slightly dampened super hearing to listen to the harsh whispers.

"She is a hazard to everybody in this building and the surrounding area."

"She's my sister, I'm not letting her be transported out there. She's too unstable, what if something happened on the way there?"

"You know Kara is like a daughter to me, but I cannot risk the lives of all the agents in the organisation just to protect her."

"J'onn please, just a few more days."

"This is the second time she has nearly killed Maggie with her heat vision."

"Please."

"One more outburst of uncontrollable powers and I will have no choice. I will not put my people at risk." J'onn's whispers turned into shouts and Kara was sure Winn and Maggie could also now hear the argument playing out in the office.

"Fine." Alex stormed out of the office and out of the medical bay without even a glance at her sister.

J'onn followed Alex and barked over his shoulder, "Agent Schott, get a clean-up team in here ASAP. I want you in the command centre in five minutes."

Winn threw an apologetic look at Kara before pulling out his cell phone and hurrying after J'onn.

Maggie was torn. There was no way she could leave Kara alone but part of her wanted to go and support Alex. She sat herself down in the spot that Winn had just vacated and put her head in her hands, letting out an audible sigh. She could see Kara watching her from the corner of her eye and so she turned to face her.

"What happened to your face Maggie?" Kara whispered. "Did I do that to you?"

"No. I got into a fight during a chase. I'm fine though."

Kara nodded, reaching out to lightly touch her bruised face with a shaky hand, pulling it back again when Maggie turned her face away.

"You don't have to stay here with me," Kara could sense Maggie's tension. "I've nearly killed you twice," she reminded her, echoing J'onn's words.

"That was not your fault." Maggie placed a hand on Kara's back.

They sat in silence, Maggie's hand lingering awkwardly on her back, until a group of agents came into the room and began to repair the damage.

"Do you think you would be up for getting out of here for a bit?" Maggie asked.

Kara nodded enthusiastically and moved to stand up.

"Wait a minute," Maggie told her as she jogged over to the store cupboard and pushed a wheelchair back over to Kara.

"Hold on to me, just stand and turn," she encouraged as she put the brakes on the wheelchair. Kara eagerly stood and almost threw herself into the chair with Maggie's help.

Maggie shook out the least charred looking blanket she could find and placed it over Kara before releasing the brakes on the chair and pushing Kara out of the bay.

"Do you even know where you are going?" Kara asked as Maggie pushed her down an unfamiliar corridor.

"Of course," Maggie chimed back with mock offense as they got to the elevator and Maggie reached for the button.

They remained silent for the entire ride to the ground floor. Maggie pushed Kara out into the darkened courtyard at the back of the building, bringing her to a stop next to a statue. The sudden blast of fresh air left Kara feeling overwhelmed, she had been stuck in the windowless medical bay for days, barely aware of the passing of time or the existence of the outside world.

The pair examined their surroundings for a few minutes, both relieved to be free of the confines of the DEO. Maggie sat on a bit of wall, swinging her legs like a child, watching Kara as she looked up at the night sky, both of them deep in thought.

* * *

By the time Maggie pushed Kara back to the medical bay, Kara was half asleep and the ward had been cleaned up. There was no longer a hole in the ceiling, the wall had been plastered and the smell of fresh paint lingered in the air. The couch that James and Winn had stolen was pushed against the wall and there were two new hospital beds, both strategically placed to cover the cracks in the concrete floor.

No one was around, so Maggie helped Kara into the nearest of the two beds.

"Can you go and check on Alex for me?" Kara asked as she tried to get herself comfortable.

"Sure."

Maggie watched as Kara began to close her eyes and then quietly left the ward.

As she walked the DEO corridors she grew more and more angry at Alex for seemingly abandoning Kara repeatedly. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down before entering the lab.

The lab was dark, with only the dim glow from various machines and screens providing any light. Alex was working in the corner, she was wearing her lab coat, hunched over the workbench, drawing up a solution into a syringe.

"Hey." Maggie tried to keep her voice calm.

Alex turned to look at Maggie. Her face was pale, her eyes dark.

"Hey." She managed to reply as she put the syringe down on the table.

Maggie's anger faltered for a moment. Alex looked absolutely broken, but then again, so did Kara.

"Is Kara okay?" Alex asked, searching Maggie's face for an explanation for the late-night visit.

"You would know if you spent any time with her." It came out harsher than she had meant it to and she could see the tears already forming in Alex's eyes.

"I'm trying to fix her." Alex told her firmly, trying to keep her voice from breaking.

Maggie watched Alex from across the lab as she teetered on the edge of tears. She looked a shadow of the badass secret agent that had stolen her heart.

"Babe, I'm sorry." Maggie rushed over to Alex and threw her arms around her. "I'm sorry, I'm tired and I'm trying to support Kara but I'm no replacement for you, her sister." Maggie rambled into Alex's shoulder.

The couple held each other until the bleeping of one of Alex's machines startled Maggie and she jumped away, causing Alex to laugh a little bit as she pressed a couple of buttons to silence the machine.

"Okay, you're right," Alex told Maggie as she took off her lab coat and slung it over her chair. "I'm going to go and sit with Kara for a bit.".

"I'm coming with you." Maggie took Alex's hand and they wandered down the deserted corridors together.

Kara was asleep when they arrived in the hastily refurbished medical bay and so they settled onto the couch, Alex nestled into Maggie's lap.

"Hey Alex?" Maggie whispered, twirling a piece of Alex's hair with her fingers.

"Yeah?" Alex snuggled further into Maggie.

"You know I love you, right?"

"I love you too."


	13. Chapter 13

Kara stared at her reflection in the mirror as she dried her hair with a towel. Her face wasn't just pale, it was grey. There was a bruise on her forehead and her eyes were blood shot and also looked grey, her irises seemed drained of their usual blue colour.

Shifting slightly in the wheelchair, Kara listened for any signs of life outside the bathroom with her now depleted super hearing. She could only just make out Maggie's gentle snoring from where she slept on the couch but nothing else.

Taking advantage of the privacy of the bathroom she tried to activate her x-ray vision, eventually managing to see through the bathroom wall, through the med bay wall and into the corridor, no one else was in the immediate area. Satisfied that her x-ray vision was working, she moved on to trying her heat vision. After minutes of trying, not even the slightest glow appeared from her eyes, only superficial tears from staring and focusing too hard. Anger flooded her body at the betrayal and she unconsciously began to tighten her grip on the arm rest of the wheelchair, only for it to begin to disintegrate under her super strength.

Frustrated, she allowed herself to cry softly for a minute, until the tears rolling slowly down her cheeks had made their way to her chin. She managed to recover herself and wiped the tears away with her hands before continuing her self-assessment of her superpowers.

The gaping hole in her thigh from the alien tooth was a testament to the fact that she did not have her full healing abilities but since she had been at the DEO she was sure that she had gained back some of her invulnerability for short periods of time. She rummaged through her bag for something to test her theory. Finding nothing of use, she took the pen that was tucked into the spirals of a notebook and proceeded to stab it into the palm of her hand. Kara let out a gasp as the ballpoint went straight through her skin. Fighting off nausea, she pulled the pen from her hand and then leant over the sink to run her now bleeding palm under the tap.

So apparently her skin was penetrable now but her super strength was still useable, as was her hearing and x-ray vision but that was about it. Just to make sure, she took in a gulp of air and attempted to expel it fast in order to test her freeze breath, mentally adding it to her list of lost abilities when it resulted in nothing but a harsh cough and a wave of nausea.

She removed her hand from under the stream water and watched as blood began to pool in her palm again before she took the towel from her shoulders and pushed it to her hand. As she applied pressure to the small wound she made eye contact with herself in the mirror. Supergirl was a mess right now and J'onn was right, the fluctuating control of her powers meant that she was a risk to everybody in the building, maybe in the city. Kara knew what she had to do to stop anything bad from happening.

She removed the towel to find that her hand had stopped bleeding. She let out a shaky breath and wheeled herself out of the bathroom, struggling on wobbly leg to stand up and perch herself on the edge of the bed. Hearing a change in Maggie's breathing that suggested she was waking up, she fumbled with her glasses, pushing them up her nose as Maggie opened her eyes.

"Are you alright?" She chimed overenthusiastically to the groggy detective.

Maggie groaned slightly and shut her eyes again, burrowing into the cushion.

"Aren't I supposed to be asking you that question?" She mumbled.

"I don't know," Kara shrugged, "You look nearly as rough as me right now."

"Thanks." Maggie slowly opened her eyes and sat up.

"Louise left those for you," Kara chirped as she pointed to a bottle of water and a pot of pills on the small table. "For your headache," she added.

"What time is it?" Maggie asked as she took a drink from the bottle of water and began to take the tablets one by one.

"I have no idea, my phone died and the charger cable doesn't reach over here from the wall," Kara shrugged again, "The clock from the wall was one of last night's casualties."

Maggie managed to swallow the last of the pills and began searching her pockets for her phone, finally finding it down the sofa cushion.

"Crap, its already the afternoon," Maggie said as she threw the blanket off herself and jumped to her feet to fold it up, watching Kara closely, taking in her appearance.

"You look a bit better," she told Kara brightly.

"Don't lie, I've seen myself in the mirror."

"Did Alex help you have a shower?"

"Actually, I managed all by myself. Alex was already gone when I woke up."

"Are you feeling any better though?" Maggie asked as she placed the neatly folded blanket on the couch.

"I still feel a bit sick but less tired I think. My leg looks a bit better as well, the nurse is going to come back and redress it, the team have just gone to an incident in the holding cells."

Kara watched from her bed as Maggie started pacing the medical bay, typing something into her phone.

"Why don't you go and get a shower and something to eat?" Kara called to her gently.

Maggie looked around the deserted medical bay.

"Are you sure?"

"Maggie, I told you, I don't need babysitting."

"Yeah, I know."

"Please go and take some time for yourself."

"Okay, do you want me to bring you anything to eat?"

"No thanks, I'm fine."

"Have you eaten anything today?"

"No. Just the thought makes me feel a bit sick."

Maggie frowned but decided not to push it any further for now.

"Alright, I'll see you later," she told Kara as she pulled her jacket on and left the room, leaving Kara on her own.

Kara watched Maggie leave. As soon as she was sure she was alone she lowered her glasses and began scanning the walls of the room from the end of the bed. When she didn't find what she was looking for she hopped down from the bed and into the wheelchair, wheeling herself around the clinical area, continuing to scan the walls. Finally, she found it, a dense patch in her vision - lead in the walls.

Ignoring the sharp pain in her leg, she stood up from the chair, placing one hand on the wall to steady herself as she pulled open the cupboard door. Behind the door was a lead lined cabinet with a keypad lock.

She grabbed the handle and pulled, her super strength easily pulling the door off its hinges, exposing the hidden contents: a stack of lead boxes.

Kara opened one of the smaller boxes, instantly feeling overcome with the effects of its contents. She let the green glow of the kryptonite coated needles wash over her for a second before she snapped the box shut and slipped it into the waistband of her pants and then continued to search the other boxes.

* * *

Maggie smiled as she walked down the corridors of the DEO a couple of hours later, watching a group of agents chatting and laughing as they left work for the day. She strolled into Alex's lab carrying a cup of coffee and feeling fresher and more relaxed. She frowned slightly as she noticed the lab was in darkness but continued to enter anyway, searching for where Alex might have got to.

After walking the entire length of the lab, Maggie was about to give up when she noticed a faint glow from a store cupboard and went to try the handle. Surprised to find it unlocked she pushed it open.

Maggie froze at the sight in front of her.

Alex was slumped on the floor, half leaning on a stack of boxes and half against the wall. There was a tourniquet on her left arm and she was tapping at a vein on her forearm.

"Alex?"

Maggie watched in horror as Alex jabbed the needle into her arm, released the tourniquet with her teeth and emptied the contents of the syringe into her vein. Alex then withdrew the needle from her arm and her head fell back against the wall.

"Alex?" Maggie dropped to her knees next to Alex. "What the hell have you done?"

Her girlfriend groaned slightly but did not open her eyes. Maggie reached out to Alex's neck to check her pulse. Her skin was cold under her fingers but her pulse was strong. Maggie noticed a faint red glow from a probe on Alex's finger, it seemed to be feeding data to the tablet on the floor next to her. Alex's eyes opened slightly and she appeared to notice Maggie before her eyes fell shut again.

"Alex, I'm freaking out here. Please tell me what is going on." Maggie was shaking Alex's shoulder frantically, trying to get her to keep her eyes open.

Alex responded to the stimulus and briefly opened her eyes again before screwing them shut.

"Alex!" She shouted again.

"Shhh," Alex weakly swiped at Maggie's hand, "Supergirl will hear you." She sounded delirious.

"You had better start explaining yourself, otherwise that'll be the least of your problems."

Alex pulled herself into more of a sitting position but still needed to lean against the wall to support herself. She reached over to try to pick up the tablet off the floor but ended up retreating back to the safety of the wall to keep the dizziness at bay. Maggie took pity on her and handed her the tablet as she sat next to Alex, back also against the wall.

Alex scrolled through the data on the tablet and visibly relaxed.

"It's getting better," she mumbled before taking a few deep breaths and shutting her eyes again.

"Babe," Maggie shook Alex's shoulder again. "You're going to have to start explaining."


	14. Chapter 14

Kara was huddled under multiple blankets as she doodled absentmindedly, lying face down on the bed. She was fed up and bored. The lined paper of her notebook was covered in scribbled drawings of faces in varying degrees of detail. None of them were up to her usual standard, her shaky hands were nothing but a hindrance.

As she turned the page to start something new, she felt the inevitable build-up of pressure behind her eyes. She had been expecting it, waiting for it even, anxious to test out a theory she'd been running through her muddled head.

Waves of pain washed over her until it was becoming too much to tolerate. She took a quick look around the medical bay to ensure no one was insight before she pulled one of the lead boxes out from its hiding spot. Hesitating slightly, she traced a finger around the edge of the box until she grew desperate and opened it, exposing herself to the kryptonite laced needles inside. She picked up a needle and rolled it between her thumb and forefinger, the headache subsided slightly but the out of control feeling remained, now joined by a sense of rising panic.

Kara opened another of the lead boxes that she had retrieved and took out one of the smallest shards of kryptonite inside. She squeezed the shard into her hand and let the kryptonite weaken her so much that she had to lie back on the bed to stop the encroaching dizziness from completely consuming her. It still felt like her heat vision was about to pour out of her eyes.

Desperation and panic eventually won out over sense and Kara stabbed the kryptonite shard into her arm and didn't remove it until she felt the heat in her eyes dissipate.

Reassured, she used the last of her energy to put the kryptonite back into the boxes and out of the way before curling up in the bed, waiting for the effects of the kryptonite exposure to pass.

* * *

Stroking Alex's hair, Maggie patiently watched as Alex fought off the effects of whatever the hell she had injected into her veins. When she had finally stopped retching and groaning, Maggie helped her to her feet and stumbled with her out of the store cupboard and into the nearest chair she could find.

Alex winced as Maggie turned on the main lights in the lab but resisted the urge to close her eyes and put her head on the desk. Slowly she turned to look at her girlfriend who was now towering over her, looking at her like she was a suspect who she was about to start interrogating.

Both women held each other's gaze, each of them daring the other to crack and break the silence first.

"I'm just testing it." Alex broke first, unable to stand the worry and hurt in Maggie's eyes any longer.

"And what is it?" Maggie kept her voice and expression neutral but her jaw was tense.

"It's an antidote for Kara."

Maggie nodded slightly but remained silent.

"I want to make sure it won't hurt her."

"But you're not Kryptonian, surely it won't affect you in the same way."

"I already know it works, I tested it on some samples of her cells first."

"But…"

"I just want to make sure, I figured if it doesn't hurt me then it probably won't hurt her," Alex interrupted.

"But it is hurting you." Maggie's voice cracked.

"Not really."

Maggie raised an eyebrow but didn't interrupt.

"Maybe at first but now it just stings a bit when I inject it and maybe it makes me feel a bit dizzy but all my vitals stay okay."

"How many times?"

Alex's gaze drifted guiltily to the windows of the lab.

"How many times, Alex?" Maggie stroked her cheek and brought Alex's eyes back to her.

"Six."

"Six?"

"Yeah, I've made ten versions of it but nothing was coming close to working until you found those worms. They are actually single-celled organisms that can absorb anything they need to in order to survive and adapt, it's what made them so easy for those students at NCU to manipulate."

"So, what's happening to Kara? How did she get infected?"

"I don't know how they got into her body but Kara's immune system managed to fight them off but there are traces of them everywhere, what's left behind is destabilising her cells, draining them of their solar radiation. I've synthesised something to help get rid of the remaining traces of the organisms, it was hard because their main weakness seems to be kryptonite but there is no way I can risk exposing Kara to that, her cells are already badly damaged." Alex explained as she picked at her nails.

"Once it was working on the samples of Kara's blood I started testing it on myself. I tweaked it after every test and it's pretty much ready to use."

"So, it's ready to give to Kara?"

"I'm just trying to figure out the best time to give it to her. Ideally it should be right before they start draining her solar energy so that Kara is at her strongest." Alex put her head in her hands. "I'm still running data through the computer but I'm hoping to be able to give Kara the initial dose tomorrow morning."

"And how long will it take to work?" Maggie pulled out the chair next to Alex and sat down beside her.

"It should start helping to stabilise her cells straight away but it'll also make her feel rough, even worse than she already does. And it'll probably take a few doses over maybe a couple of days to completely work," Alex was now digging her thumbs into her eyes, "If it works at all that is."

"It will work," Maggie tried to reassure her.

"It has to work, I'm not sure how much more instability her cells can take, the last samples I took showed a lot of damage."

"Have you explained any of this to Kara or what you are planning?"

"No," Alex admitted.

"Why don't we go and grab some food and then you can go and tell her."

* * *

Kara let her legs dangle over the edge of the roof as she listened to the noise of the city. She strained to hear something familiar through the traffic, the sirens, the people.

"Another win for Team Guardian," she zoned in on Winn congratulating James with what sounded like a high five.

"Should we celebrate at the bar?" he continued.

"I don't know, shouldn't we go and see Kara?"

Kara tuned out, not wanting to hear anymore, she didn't need anyone to feel sorry for her. She didn't blame them though, she must look pathetic right now, sat on the edge of a skyscraper in her pyjamas.

Trying to push the negative thoughts from her head, she struggled to listen for Alex. She strained her hearing through the sound dampening technology that lined various top-secret areas of the DEO but she couldn't hear her in the building, instead she could hear Maggie's voice on the streets below.

"Hurry up Danvers, it's about to start raining."

"I'm not used to buying so little food." Kara could hear the smile in Alex's voice.

"I think that's why the cashier was looking at us so weird. It wasn't exactly our usual order."

"Yeah, or maybe it was because your face is half bruises and I look like a drug addict – to use your words."

"You know the DEO should find a way for us to get take out delivered." Maggie joked.

"Good luck pitching that idea to J'onn," Alex was laughing now. "He already frowns upon the team's eating habits and then there's the whole super-secret government agency not wanting to invite random delivery guys to our front door."

Kara lost her concentration and Alex and Maggie's voices faded away into the chaos of National City.

Kara closed her eyes and let her vision go dark behind her eyelids as the noise washed over her. She had lost her cape in the ocean and her super suit was shredded and torn so badly that she doubted Winn would be able to repair it, in fact she was seriously beginning to doubt Alex would even be able to repair Supergirl.

None of the DEO medics had really explained what was wrong with her and neither had Alex. Maybe they didn't know what was wrong and if Alex couldn't sort her out then no one could, maybe that was why she hadn't been around, she was pulling away. Even if she did get better, could she really go back to being Supergirl without Alex's support? But then again, if she wasn't going to be Supergirl she would just be an unemployable nobody trying to hide her superpowers.

She tried to shut her scattered thoughts out and focus on her breathing. With every breath she took she could feel the weight of the kryptonite in her pocket. She had run out of other options.

* * *

"Hey guys." Maggie called to James and Winn as she spotted them approaching them down the corridor.

"Oh, hey, are you guys going to see Kara?" Winn asked.

"Yeah, we just grabbed some Chinese to see if we can tempt her into eating."

"Cool, can we join you?" James asked as they turned onto the main corridor and continued towards the med bay, Alex ahead of them, already at the entrance. "We've not seen her today, she was asleep this morning when we stopped by."

"Absolutely."

The three of them got to the bay just in time to witness Alex launching herself at one of the techs.

"Where the hell is she?" Alex had her hand against the tech's chest, pushing him against the wall.

Maggie rushed to her side, worried she was going to hurt him.

"I have no idea, she was gone when I got here about five minutes ago," the tech whimpered and Alex relaxed her grip on his black t-shirt.

"She can't have gone far, she probably just got bored hanging around here." Maggie pulled at Alex's shoulder and Alex backed away from the tech.

"Yeah, let's just go and check the CCTV." Winn suggested, keeping his distance from Alex.

Alex stormed ahead of the group, heading straight for the command centre.

By the time Maggie, Winn and James had caught up to her her fingers were already clumsily bashing at a keyboard, bringing up CCTV footage from around the DEO.

"That's the entrance to the med bay." James pointed at the screen as Winn jumped on the next computer and started scrolling through the video.

"Okay. Here's Kara leaving the bay twenty minutes ago." Winn pulled up the video on the main screens as the rest of the group gathered around to watch the footage of Kara wheeling herself out of the bay, struggling slightly with the door before heading down the corridor.

Winn was already searching for the next time Kara was on camera and found a clip of Kara calling the service elevator before eventually getting in it.

"Is there CCTV in the elevators?" Maggie asked.

"Yeah." Winn pulled up some more footage of Kara in the lift and zoomed in on the panel to see which floor she was heading to.

"The roof?" Alex whispered.

"Looks like it," Winn replied, still tapping away at the keyboard.

"Did she come down?"

"The only camera on the roof faces the service elevator entrance. It doesn't show Kara re-entering the elevator so she's still up there, unless..." Winn was saved from finishing that thought by an alarm from another of the analyst's computers.

"Kryptonite signature detected," came the automated voice from the computer.


	15. Chapter 15

The rain that Maggie had predicted had arrived. It tore through her cotton pyjamas like knives, drenching her skin. She wasn't supposed to be able to feel the cold on Earth but she could feel it now, burrowing itself into her skin, seeping into her muscles, her blood, her bones. Recently it seemed like all she could feel was cold, a constant numbness that she couldn't overcome.

Shivering, she slowly got to her feet, shaky hands pushing up from the roof until she was teetering on the edge, the street below coming in and out of focus. Wind whipped through her hair bringing the noise of the city to her ears.

Her body reacted to the sirens and shouting before her brain could intervene. Muscle memory sent her leaping off the edge of the roof and into the arms of gravity, heading feet first towards the pavement. Her arms and legs flapped uselessly as she fell, until she somehow managed to begin to float. She stayed still, limbs dangling limply, unsure of what to do.

"Who is that?"

Someone on the ground had spotted her hovering over them in just her pyjamas. Her legs flapped uselessly beneath her as panic crept over her brain, she couldn't remember how to fly.

The panic continued to take over. This was how people would find out her identity. She dropped suddenly again as she completely lost her concentration.

Inches from the ground her body and brain finally figured it out and she shot herself higher into the sky and out of sight of the city's residents. Once she was outside of the city limits she tried to slow down but found herself unable to control her speed or altitude and she could rapidly feel her energy dwindling.

Her descent was rapid and Kara was unable to slow herself down. She closed her eyes in a last-ditch effort to focus and to prevent collision with the rapidly approaching ground.

It didn't work.

Pain overwhelmed her as her body slammed into the desert terrain. The definite sound of bones cracking echoed in her ears as well as the sound of something else breaking but she couldn't quite figure out what it was. Kara struggled to process the sound, her thoughts sluggish and her head was pounding as the sand that had been displaced by her heavy landing settled over her now broken body.

She was on her side, her left arm trapped between her body and the ground. Trying to roll herself onto her back, she felt a sharp pain in her hip and a familiar feeling of nausea and fatigue rushed over her. The box of kryptonite in the pocket of her pyjama bottoms had smashed, as had the kryptonite inside. She quickly used her right arm to pat down the pocket on the opposite side of the pyjamas and pulled out an intact lead box.

An alarm was now sounding in the distance and she could hear shouting but the words were muffled by the wind. Bright headlights appeared at the edge of her vision as the kryptonite slowly seeped into her system.

Kara made another attempt to get up but pain shot through her entire left side as soon as she moved and she collapsed back onto the sand. The vehicles were approaching fast, the glare from the headlights was now causing a searing pain behind her eyes and before she knew it she was screaming and solar energy was blasting out of her eyes into the sand in front of the oncoming vehicles.

The headlights stopped their approach instantly and she managed to stop her heat vision long enough to see the occupants of the vehicles get out and point their weapons towards her.

The kryptonite wasn't weakening her quickly enough, she could feel the pressure building up again. In an attempt to stop another outburst, she opened the other lead box and took the slab of kryptonite it contained into her hand, digging it into the palm of her hand with her fist.

Silence slowly crept up on Kara, the lights in front of her got dimmer and she allowed her eyes to fall closed for a final time.

* * *

"Kryptonite signature detected."

Alex reached the computer first and studied the satellite map on the screen. Maggie watched intently as her expression went from panic to confusion.

"Isn't that…" Winn started.

"The DEO base in the desert," Alex confirmed. "Winn can you get any live footage from the base?"

"Let me see," Winn turned back around to his computer.

"Alex, what is going on?" Maggie asked.

"My question exactly Detective Sawyer." J'onn appeared from the stairs.

"J'onn," Alex stuttered.

"I'm getting reports of a perimeter breach at our desert facility."

"There's also kryptonite there," Alex told him.

"DEO agents are already responding, they have orders to detain the intruder with the necessary force. We need to get over there Agent Danvers." J'onn signalled for Alex to follow him from the command centre.

Alex hesitated, not wanting to leave when she hadn't returned Kara to her bed in the medical bay.

"We'll take care of Kara," Maggie reassured her as she pointed at James.

"Sir, you need to tell your agents to stand down," Winn called from behind his computer screen.

"Excuse me?" J'onn turned back to Winn causing the analyst to stutter under his gaze.

"Erm, the intruder, I think it's Supergirl," Winn pointed to some footage on his screen. "This is from the perimeter fence." He zoomed in on a night vision view of Kara lying on the sand surrounded by DEO agents, all with their weapons trained on her.

J'onn pulled out his cell phone, tapped at the screen and put it to his ear, his eyes fixed on the CCTV footage.

"Agent Smith, tell your team to stand down. Do not engage the intruder," he barked down the phone before shape shifting into his Martian form and marching towards the balcony.

"I'm coming with you." Alex followed him out of the sliding door.

"Agent Schott, track down where that kryptonite came from. If we've got a security breach we need to know about it," J'onn shouted across the command room before placing his arm around Alex and launching them across the city towards the other DEO base.

Alex's stomach lurched as she tried to adjust to the feeling of flying. J'onn usually treated flying like an art form. He was a careful, skilled flier, slower and more in control than Kara ever had been but not at the moment. J'onn turned sharply and Alex let out a gasp as she tried to keep the nausea under control. He was going faster than Alex had ever seen him go and by the time her stomach had settled they were descending, the familiar DEO base coming into view, bringing back memories of her first years at the DEO.

They landed gently on the sand just over the perimeter fence and J'onn transformed back into Hank Henshaw. Alex took a deep breath to settle her thoughts and to control her expression before following J'onn as he marched over to the figure crumpled on the sand, completely surrounded by DEO agents.

Alex faltered when she got to Kara's side. She could see the blood that streaked her face from her nose, her ears and her lip. Her breathing was noisy, she wheezed on every breath she took in. A sickly green glow seeped out of Kara's closed fist and Alex pried her hand open to remove the offending green rock. Kara's breathing seemed to ease slightly but she didn't open her eyes.

Alex rolled her limp sister onto her back and checked her over, her hands came away from Kara's side covered in her blood. She gently moved her damp t-shirt to the side to reveal a graze littered with shattered kryptonite which extended down past her waistband. She moved to examine Kara's hip but realised the entirety of the base was watching and probably Maggie, Winn and James as well back in National City.

"J'onn we've got to get her out of here," Alex whispered to her boss who was knelt on the other side of her sister.

"Do you think she's stable enough to take back?" J'onn asked as he glanced around at the agents watching them.

"I don't know. I'd rather check her over here first. Can we get her inside?"

J'onn nodded and he stood up and placed his hands on his hips before addressing the crowd of agents.

"Everybody get back to your posts." His voice echoed around the area. "Agent Smith, a word please." J'onn signalled to the senior agent to follow him.

Agents scattered in every direction and J'onn made sure no one was in earshot before he started.

"I need you to get me a helicopter ready to go. We're going to assess her inside before we head back to the city."

"Anything else sir?"

"Just make sure your team keep their thoughts to themselves." J'onn nodded his head towards a group of junior agents who were walking slowly back into the base together. "I don't want anyone discussing this."

"Yes sir."

J'onn nodded at the agent and then rushed back to Alex and Kara.

"How is she?"

"Not great," Alex admitted as she pulled the last of the visible kryptonite from Kara's hip. Blood poured from the wound as Alex pulled the pyjama top back down and she calmly moved to put pressure on it with both hands.

J'onn knelt down on the other side of Kara again.

"Is she okay for me to pick up?" J'onn asked as he tucked a stray hair back behind Kara's ear.

"Yeah, I'll try to keep pressure on her wound as you carry her."

J'onn gently picked up Kara in his arms and carefully carried her into the DEO. Despite Alex's best efforts, blood was still dripping from Kara's left side, leaving a trail of blood behind the trio. Agents cleared a path down the corridors and they were soon at the medical bay. J'onn placed Kara on the nearest bed.

Alex immediately set to work. She pulled Kara's pants down to expose the true extent of the wound to her hip.

J'onn watched silently as Alex removed all the visible kryptonite from the wound. He helped her pull the x-ray machine over to the bedside and lifted Kara up so that Alex could place the x-ray board under her. Alex sighed as she looked at the x-rays.

"There's still kryptonite in there." Alex told J'onn dejectedly as she removed the board from under Kara. "And her ribs are broken."

"What do we need to do?" J'onn asked as Alex placed a probe on Kara's finger and a blood pressure cuff on her arm.

"I'm going to have to debride the wound," Alex told him, watching the monitor as Kara's vital signs appeared. "Can you see if Dr Hamilton is on site?"

J'onn nodded and left the bay.

"Kara, open your eyes." She shook her sister's shoulder gently with one hand and stroked her face with her other.

"Kara." Her voice was a bit louder this time and she shook her shoulder with more force.

"Kara!" Alex was shouting now, her fingers pinching the muscle in Kara's shoulder in order to try and get her to open her eyes.

Kara eventually grimaced but her eyes didn't open. Her right arm moved to her chest in what seemed like some kind of attempt to stop the pain from being inflicted on her.

Alex could feel fresh tears burning at her eyes. She fumbled through the equipment draws until she found a pen torch and then opened her sister's eyes with her fingers, shining the light into each eye and watching for a response just as J'onn returned to the bay.

"Dr Hamilton left about an hour ago." J'onn told her as he made his way back to Kara's side. "Is she okay?"

"No, I need to get that kryptonite out now, I'm worried she hit her head when she landed. I'm going to sedate her and clean up the wound as best as I can here and then we'll get her back to National City."

"Do you want me to ask Dr Hamilton to come in?"

"No," Alex shook her head. "There's no time. I'll do it on my own."


	16. Chapter 16

Alex's eyes were wild and unfocused as J'onn opened the back of the helicopter to retrieve Kara and take her into the DEO. She was mumbling incoherently to Kara who was still unconscious, her thoughts were radiating uninvited into J'onn's and they were just as disjointed.

"Is she any better?" J'onn asked, trying to focus Alex.

Alex's eyes finally met his and she shook her head as J'onn gathered Kara into his strong arms.

"I got rid of the kryptonite but it caused a lot of damage. She needs the sun lamps and a cure. The kryptonite was the last straw for her already damaged cells," Alex told him as she followed him to the elevator and pressed the down button.

"This is my fault," J'onn whispered, eyes fixed on Kara's pale face.

"No, it's not." Alex put her hand on J'onn's back.

"I was the one who brought up the desert base."

"Nope, this one is all on me," Alex pushed the call bell again impatiently. "Things haven't been great between us for a while now and as Maggie pointed out, I haven't really been there for her whilst she's been stuck at the DEO."

"Alex…" J'onn started as the elevator doors finally opened.

"It doesn't matter right now, we just have to get her better," Alex told him dismissively as the lift started its journey down the few floors to the medical bay.

"She looks so unwell," J'onn whispered.

"That's because she is," Alex told him as the lift dinged, announcing their destination.

J'onn tore his gaze away from Kara's unconscious form and hardened his stance as the doors parted and they were greeted by Winn, James and Maggie.

"What the hell happened?" James asked as they followed them to the medical bay.

"We're not sure," J'onn told the trio as he placed Kara down the bed.

"Winn, did you manage to trace the source of the kryptonite?" He asked.

"Actually, yeah," Winn rushed over to one of the cabinets on the wall and pulled it open to reveal an empty lead lined cupboard, its door ripped from its hinges.

Both J'onn and Alex's faces were a mixture of shock and confusion. J'onn recovered his thoughts first.

"Was it definitely Kara who took it?"

"Her fingerprints are all over it," Winn confirmed.

"Can you guys give her some privacy? I need to examine her." Alex changed the subject, unsure of the implications of the new information.

"Of course," James led the group away.

When they'd all left the room, Alex carefully removed Kara's dirty pyjamas and replaced them with a plain hospital gown. She attached various monitoring devices to her sister before turning on the sun lamps. The familiar droning noise of the lamps filled the room and Alex took Kara's hand for a second, rubbing it soothingly with her thumb before gently placing it back by her side.

"Kara." She shook her shoulder hard, repeating her earlier attempt to elicit some kind of response from Kara.

"Kara, come on," she continued digging her fingers into the muscle, desperate to get Kara to open her eyes.

"Kara please open you eyes for me." Kara's eyes remained closed.

Alex paced the room a couple of times before heading to her lab. At some point someone began to follow her. From the sound of the footsteps she assumed it was Maggie but she didn't take the time to look, she didn't stop walking until she reached the lab.

Maggie leant against the door frame and watched silently as Alex gathered equipment from around the lab before washing her hands and pulling on a pair of gloves. Maggie remained silent as Alex assembled the infusion, checking everything over twice before pulling off her gloves and tossing them into the bin.

"Are you going to try it out now?" Maggie pushed herself off the doorway with her shoulder and began to approach Alex.

"Yeah."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Maggie asked as she put an arm around her girlfriend.

Alex burrowed her head into Maggie's shoulder and Maggie tightened her grip on her. They stood together in the middle of the lab for a few minutes, Maggie stroking Alex's hair.

"She's dying." Alex finally removed her head from Maggie's shoulder.

Maggie didn't know what to say so she pulled Alex back into her arms.

"Will you hold her hand?" Alex finally broke the hug and turned to face Maggie, her eyes glistening with tears. "She's still sedated but I don't want her to be on her own, it still might be painful even with the sedation and I'll be busy monitoring her and running tests."

"Of course, whatever you and Kara need." Maggie smiled and helped Alex carry the equipment back down the corridor to Kara.

* * *

The cold had subsided but she wasn't sure she preferred the warmth that had replaced it. The familiar heat on her skin could only be from the DEO's sunlamps, hot but synthetic, they never felt quite as good as the real thing. Artificial sunlight wasn't the only thing contributing to the heat.

Fire was creeping up her entire body. It started with a stinging sensation in her left forearm, slowly spreading up her arm until it seeped into her chest, making it feel tight, constricting even. Breathing became hard. She hadn't even been thinking about it until that point but the more she thought about breathing the more of a struggle it became. Every breath she did manage to take seemed to make the fire spread more and before she knew it her whole body was ablaze.

Her heart was hammering away in her chest, smashing against her already painful rib cage. The noisy heartbeats echoed in her ears, rolling around her brain, mixing with the never-ending alarm from a monitor and the murmur of voices nearby. Someone was squeezing her hand but she couldn't squeeze it back as the voices faded in and out, nothing but garbled words that didn't make sense however hard she tried to concentrate on them.

An uncontrollable tear slipped out of her closed eye. It tumbled down her cheek before coming to rest at the corner of her mouth. She lay in painful silence, wondering how much more strain her heart could tolerate before it just stopped beating.

* * *

Maggie watched the stray tear roll down Kara's cheek as the noise from the monitor intensified. She reached over and wiped it away with the sleeve of her jacket, keeping hold of Kara's hand in the process. She looked across at Alex whose eyes were flitting between the monitor and the infusion in her sister's arm. She looked tense but composed, unperturbed by the alarm from the monitor. Reassured by Alex's demeanour she leaned in to Kara's ear and tried to sooth and reassure her as Alex continued to monitor her.

Eventually the beeping slowed down and Alex began to visibly relax, the tension in the air settled slightly and Maggie felt like she could breathe properly again.

"Well done kid," she whispered into Kara's ear as she stroked her cheek before she settled back down into the seat next to her.

"Was that all of the first dose?" She turned to ask Alex who was discarding her equipment.

"Yeah." Alex's voice was strained.

"Did it go as planned?" Maggie prompted as Alex walked back over to Kara and began to shine the pen torch in her eyes.

"Yeah, I think so. Her heart rate increased more than expected but its settling now, that's what happened to me the first few doses I took, although not quite that bad."

Maggie's heart sank at the thought that Alex had gone through that alone.

"I'm going to take some more blood in about an hour and see if there's any improvement," Alex told her as she put a stethoscope to Kara's chest, listening intently to her heart.

"Do you think it'll work that fast?" Maggie asked when Alex had taken the stethoscope back out of her ears.

"I should be able to see an improvement, however small, straight away. If it has worked I'll use the results to adjust the next dose."

Alex hesitated as she noticed a small rash on her sister's shoulder. She pulled the top of her gown down towards her chest to try to get a better look. She poked at the rash before lifting the bottom of the gown up to check her stomach. Maggie found herself gasping when she saw the amount of bruising on Kara's ribs. Alex poked again at the rash that faded just above Kara's belly button before walking over to the desk and returning with a marker pen which she proceeded to use to draw around the blotchy pattern on Kara's torso. She then examined the rash for a final time before returning the gown back over Kara.

"Is that a problem?"

"No, I think its just a superficial reaction, I might need to dilute the infusion a bit more next time. I've drawn around it so I can tell if it gets any worse."

"Good." Maggie set down Kara's hand and stood up, stretching slightly before following Alex across the room.

Alex sat down at the desk and began to write something.

"Why do you think she took that kryptonite?" Maggie asked when she reached Alex.

Alex didn't answer and continued to write but Maggie saw her pause for a second, a frown briefly appearing on her eyebrows before she quickly masked it.

"Do you think she was trying to kill herself?" Maggie cringed. There was no easy way to phrase the question but she had ended up sounding like a prying police officer rather than a supportive partner.

"No." Alex's response was sharp. "No. She wouldn't, not intentionally." The distress was evident in her voice.

"Things have been hard recently. Loss of a job and financial stress are risk factors for…"

"No, Maggie, stop thinking like a cop. Kara is Supergirl, she's not, she would never…"

"Alex…"

"No, she's not actually human…"

"I've seen aliens who…"

"I just think she didn't want to hurt anyone, she knew the kryptonite would dampen her powers, prevent any unwanted heat vision from hurting anyone." Alex was now staring at Kara across the room. "When she was hit with red kryptonite she was devastated that she had hurt people. She would always sacrifice herself to save others." Alex threw her pen down, put her head in her hands and began crying, realising what she had just admitted.

Maggie fought back her own tears and took Alex in her arms yet again, pressing her lips to her hair.

"How did things get so messed up?" Alex sobbed.


	17. Chapter 17

Alex was only half listening to the morning briefing in the command centre. Winn was reeling off a list of information on their latest Cadmus lead but her mind was on Kara, still unconscious in the medical bay.

Distracted, she began to jot down possible alterations she could make to improve the cure she had developed for Kara. The medication was working as it should, if not a little slower than her calculations had predicted, but Kara still hadn't opened her eyes. The CT scan performed overnight had shown a subdural haematoma but with no significant mass effect on her brain and Alex was struggling to explain why Kara hadn't woken up yet.

 _Maybe she doesn't want to._

Overwhelmed with her thoughts, Alex put her pen down and closed her eyes. She was supposed to be resting. The bruising to Maggie's face from where she had been kicked hadn't got any better and neither had the pain. Alex couldn't stand watching her miserably trying to sleep in the DEO so she had sent Maggie home but she had only agreed to go if Alex promised to try to get some sleep herself.

She had tried to keep her promise and get some rest, James was sitting with Kara so that Alex could try to get some sleep before she was due to give Kara her next infusion. She'd managed about three hours before her dream had turned into a nightmare in which Kara dressed as Supergirl flew into the DEO being chased by large flying worms. In the dream the worms then turned into lumps of kryptonite and Supergirl began to cackle like a supervillain until she collapsed to her knees. It was impossible to sleep after that.

 _Why do you think she took that kryptonite?_

Alex shook her thoughts away and took a look around the command centre to find that Winn had stopped talking and the briefing was over. Most of the team had dispersed to carry out their assigned duties. Winn was watching her from his computer across the table, she was about to snarl at him when the balcony doors opened.

Alex jumped to her feet. A very stiff looking Supergirl was staggering down the stairs in full uniform. Stumbling slightly, Alex gripped the table for support, the world around her tilting dangerously.

"Kara?" She whispered.

Her heart sank as she watched the tell-tale red lines seep across Supergirl's face as she transformed briefly into J'onn's Martian form and then his human body. She felt herself slipping to the floor, legs unable to hold her up anymore. Winn managed to grab her and guided her back into the chair, his arm awkwardly remaining on her back once she was safely sat down. J'onn approached the pair, concern across his features.

"I'm sorry," J'onn whispered as he got to Alex, reaching out to comfort her.

Alex pulled away from his touch.

"Supergirl was needed, there was a train derailment just outside of the city," J'onn tried to explain but Alex had completely shut down and zoned out.

J'onn exchanged a worried glance with Winn before signalling for him to follow him to the other side of the room and out of Alex's hearing range.

J'onn returned to Alex's side a minute later on his own.

"Let's go," he told her as he gently took her arm and led her silently to his office.

"I'm not going to ask you if you are okay, because you are clearly not," J'onn told her as he sat her down on his sofa and shut all the blinds.

"When was the last time you had something to eat?"

Alex remained silent, thinking back to the Chinese food they had had to abandon the previous evening. She couldn't remember anything other than copious amounts of coffee since the pizza and popcorn she had managed days ago.

"Alex, you need to take care of yourself, otherwise you will be of no use to your sister," J'onn scolded gently, sitting down next to Alex.

Alex didn't argue, just sank into his embrace and allowed herself to be held until there was a knock on the door. J'onn separated himself from Alex and stood up and went to open the door. He took something from the person at the other side and thanked them before returning to Alex with a bag.

"Take your pick," he said, holding out the bag for Alex to take. "I told Winn to get something of everything."

"From Donny's?" Alex took the bag from J'onn's hand and peered inside, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

"Of course."

* * *

Twelve hours later, once Alex had connected up the fourth dose and it had nearly finished, Kara finds her way back to some semblance of consciousness.

Maggie had just arrived back at the DEO and was now sat by Kara's side, clasping her hand as she watched Alex change the dressing to Kara's kryptonite wound on her hip and then the bite mark on her thigh.

Kara groaned and made a misguided attempt to sit up, falling heavily back onto the bed before either Maggie or Alex could react and catch her. A harsh breath stuck in Kara's throat and a shaky arm reached across to guard her ribcage as she tried to curl into herself in the bed, eyes closed again.

"Kara, it's okay, you're okay," Alex soothed, trying to protect the cannula in Kara's arm from her movements. Kara only continued to writhe around the bed, eyes screwed shut and teeth clenched.

Her movements caused the infusion pump next to her to begin to alarm and Alex moved quickly to stop the noise. After a minute, Kara settled down and Alex gently coaxed her into lying on her back, instantly turning her attention to the reinforced cannula in her arm.

"Where is it hurting Kara?" Maggie asked.

Kara stared blankly at Maggie for a second before her eyes drifted back to her left arm which Alex was now fiddling with. Maggie felt Kara's arm tense and then begin to reach out but she managed to grab it and bring it back down to her side before she even got close to the cannula.

"Kara?" Maggie squeezed her hand and brought Kara's attention back to her.

Kara's face still looked blank, her eyes dim.

"Do your ribs hurt?"

Kara's eyes began to drift back to Alex so Maggie squeezed her hand again.

"Kara?"

"Yeah?" Her voice was weak, barely more than a whisper.

"Do your ribs hurt?"

"Yeah," Kara nodded.

Alex pressed a couple of buttons on the machine and then turned her attention back to Kara, shining a light into her eyes before she had a chance to pull away. The sound that escaped Kara's lips was almost a hiss but she allowed Alex to continue to examine her eyes.

"Is the light painful?"

"No."

Kara's gaze drifted to her arm again, gazing intently at the cannula, and yet again she made a move with her right arm to reach for it. Again, Maggie stopped her easily. Kara grew irritated and pulled at Maggie to release her arm but there was no strength behind her movements and so Maggie just rubbed her arm in an attempt to calm her down.

"It's just some medication Kara. It's helping to get you better," Alex told her firmly.

"No," Kara was now kicking her legs on the bed, causing her to gasp in pain.

"Kara please calm down, you will hurt yourself."

"No." Kara was growing more and more frustrated, clearly unable to express her needs.

"Is it stinging?" Alex asked.

Kara nodded her head vigorously and relaxed back into the bed, tears of relief streaming down her cheeks.

Alex studied the infusion. There were only three minutes left until it had finished but Kara needed every drop of the drug, she just needed to distract her for a bit longer.

"Alright, I'll turn it off in a minute, but first, can I have a look at your chest?"

Kara looked blankly at Alex and then at Maggie, before her eyes drifted completely to the equipment at the side of Maggie. Alex took the opportunity to lift Kara's gown to check on the rash on her torso. It hadn't spread any further and it wasn't any redder but it hadn't improved either, neither had the bruising to her ribs. She prodded the rash with her finger, relieved when Kara didn't flinch.

"Okay, all done," she announced and replaced the gown just as the machine beeped, announcing the end of the infusion.

She turned the pump off, pulled off her gloves and went to wash her hands and put a fresh pair on, before returning to disconnect the IV and flush the cannula.

Kara was still staring off into the distance but was now stroking Maggie's arm gently. Maggie looked at Alex, confusion plastered across her features, but Alex just shrugged in response. The stroking became gentler and less frequent until Kara soothed herself to sleep, her hand falling limply on Maggie's arm.

"How bad is this?" Maggie whispered as she untangled herself from Kara.

"She's got a serious head injury and there's no signs she has any of her powers. None of her wounds seem to be healing and the old one on her thigh which had been healing slightly before the kryptonite hasn't got any better either."

"Is there anything you can do?"

Alex shook her head, "Her bloods are improving and the sunlamps are on so if her cells' ability to absorb sunlight improves it will be available straight away. As for her head, I think its better if we watch and wait, the fact that she's regained consciousness suggests some improvement and she could continue to improve on her own, especially with further doses of the drug. If she was human we'd consider drilling a hole into her skull to relieve the pressure or open her skull completely."

Alex paused as she watched Maggie shudder at the thought.

"Performing any kind of surgery would be a last resort, it would be complicated to anaesthetise her properly. I'm going to get another CT scan for her now, I've got someone I can ask for a second opinion."

"Does it have to be right now? She's just settled."

"I've got someone I can call tonight if I can send him some images within the next few hours."

"Tonight? It's almost 10pm." Maggie glanced at the clock on her phone.

"He's working in Italy at the moment, its 8 o'clock in the morning over there. I asked for his schedule this week, he's not got any surgery until the afternoon." Alex told her before picking up the phone to start making arrangements to get Kara another scan.

* * *

"Thanks Matt." Alex ended the call and turned on her chair to face Maggie who was also sat at the desk catching up on some work.

It was 2am and Kara had slept her way through the entire ordeal of moving her through a CT scan and was now settled back in bed under the sun lamps. Alex had sent the scan images straight away and her contact had called her back as soon as he could to report his findings.

"He agrees that the haematoma has improved significantly but that it is the likely cause of Kara's difficulty speaking and her inattentiveness."

"Does he have any suggestions?"

"Not really, he has no experience with Kryptonians."

"You told him it was Supergirl's scan he was looking at?"

"No, of course not. But Kara's brain doesn't quite look human. He used to work here but before Supergirl, he knows it's a scan of a humanoid alien."

"He used to work here?"

"Yeah, he left about six months after I joined to take up a training post in Italy, he wanted to get back to surgery."

"So… an Italian brain surgeon?" Maggie cocked her eyebrow and smirked.

"He's American, he's just living in Italy, but yeah. He taught me the ropes in the lab and the med bay over in the desert."

Maggie continued to grin at Alex.

"What?" Alex smiled nervously.

"Nothing," Maggie laughed.

"Tell me," Alex pouted.

"You and a handsome brain surgeon out in the desert wilderness together…" Maggie teased.

"Wilderness? What are you talking about?"

"You and this Matt guy."

"And I never said he was handsome."

"You didn't have to, you're blushing."

"He's married and I'm..."

"Whatever," Maggie cut her off with a shrug and turned back to the paperwork she had been completing to hide her grin.

"Oh my God, Maggie, are you messing with me?" Alex shoved Maggie playfully on the shoulder.

"You are so easy to wind up, just like your sister," Maggie laughed.

"Hey!" Came a hoarse voice from across the room, "I heard that."


	18. Chapter 18

Alex was at Kara's side in seconds, closely followed by Maggie. Her sister's eyes were tightly shut, sweat covered her face and her breathing was noisy.

"Kara?" Alex whispered, suddenly unsure if she'd actually heard her speaking.

"Kara?" She called a little louder when Kara didn't seem to respond.

"I said I could hear you," Kara moaned, each word straining her voice, causing her to cough harshly.

"I think you need to sit up a bit more," Alex told Kara who shut her eyes even tighter, reluctant to move.

"Can you help me?" she asked Maggie across the bed, ignoring Kara's protests.

The couple stood on each side of the bed and gently helped Kara to sit upright, placing pillows behind her back. A whimper escaped Kara's lips as she relaxed into the bed.

"Do you want some water?" Alex asked.

"Yeah," Kara nodded as the strain on her voice caused her to cough again, igniting the pain across her chest.

Alex grabbed a bottle of water from the table and handed it to Kara, who took desperate gulps from the bottle.

"Hey, slow down."

Kara ignored her and carried on drinking until the bottle was empty. She handed the empty bottle back to Alex, her expression suggested she needed more.

"Only if you take sips, you're going to make yourself…" Alex stopped as Kara's expression changed suddenly and Alex realised what was about to happen.

She managed to grab a sick bowl and place it under Kara's chin just in time to catch the water as it came back out of her mouth. Alex rubbed Kara's back with her free hand as Kara lurched forward again, completely emptying her stomach into the bowl.

Kara eventually stopped retching and Alex wiped her mouth with the tissue that Maggie had handed to her and then went to get rid of the bowl.

"Can you remember what happened?" Alex asked as she returned to the bedside.

Kara shook her head slightly, waiting expectantly for an explanation but receiving none as Alex became distracted by the monitor next to her which had begun to alarm.

"I'm guessing I lost a fight," Kara turned to Maggie, groaning as she shifted slightly in the bed.

"Yeah, pretty much," Maggie smiled awkwardly.

"Kara, do you know where you are at the moment?" Alex asked as she silenced the alarm, her attention turned back to Kara.

"Yeah, the DEO, why?"

Alex ignored the question and continued with her own.

"Do you know what month it is?"

"Yeah…" Kara looked taken aback by the question, "February?"

"Not quite," Alex frowned, "How about the year?"

"February."

"No, the year Kara."

Kara stared at Alex and Maggie, she looked confused.

"Okay, last thing," Alex began fumbling in her pocket, "What's this?" she asked, waving a black pen in front of Kara's face.

Kara stuttered but couldn't find the word.

"Do you know what colour it is?"

Again, Kara stuttered but eventually managed to form a word.

"Blue." The look on her face suggested she knew it was wrong and she continued to stutter before giving up, groaning in both pain and frustration.

"Okay, don't worry about it Kara," Alex squeezed Kara's hand, trying to mask her concern, "I'm just going to get you some pain relief."

Alex hurried over to the drug cupboard and prepared some pain relief as she listened to Maggie telling Kara all the latest gossip involving her Sergeant and the newly transferred head of homicide. Neither Alex or Kara had met either of Maggie's co-workers but Alex appreciated the distraction as she prepared the medication.

Once it was ready, Alex gave a little bit of the pain relief to Kara through the cannula in her arm.

"Does it feel any better?" Alex asked after a couple of minutes in which Maggie had managed to dramatically recount the argument she had overheard between her colleagues which had resulted in her boss being slapped in the face.

"Yeah, a bit." Kara wriggled in the bed and nearly doubled over in pain.

"I'll give you a bit more."

"What is that?" Maggie asked as she watched Alex slowly give the medication.

"It's kind of like morphine, its synthetic, designed specifically for Kryptonians. We developed it here at the DEO just in case but I've never actually had to use it. It shouldn't take much to work."

"I am still here you know," Kara mumbled, already looking in less pain.

"Is it working?" Alex asked as she watched as Kara began to struggle to keep her eyes open.

"Yeah," Kara sighed, eyelids finally too heavy to remain open.

* * *

Fog blurred her vision as a high-pitched scream pierced the numbness that had taken hold of her. She felt herself heading towards the noise, unable to control her legs as they led her into a dimly lit street. A familiar figure stumbled awkwardly out of the shadows, collapsing inches from her feet.

"Alex?"

Kara reached out to her fallen sister but pulled away as her hand made contact with her sister's pale skin. Her whole hand burnt and the pain travelled up her arm. When she looked down at it she could see why. Her whole arm was green with the effects of kryptonite. Alex's arm had a handprint on it, Kara's touch had melted away the skin on her arm to reveal the kryptonite beneath.

Nausea overwhelmed Kara and the world tilted, a brightness surrounded her before cold darkness won her over.

Once she felt like the world had settled she opened her eyes to find herself lying on a slab of ice. She tried to sit up but instead fell off the edge of the ice onto the snowy floor. Her surroundings felt familiar, but her eyes struggled to pick out landmarks from the overwhelming brightness of the white snow and ice. She pushed herself up off the snow and staggered to her feet, using the slab of ice to pull herself up.

Kryptonian symbols suddenly streaked the walls, they were muddled though, none of the writing made any sense, like her brain couldn't translate it anymore.

Shards of ice were scattered everywhere, drops of water dripped from each of them. She was in The Fortress of Solitude – and it was melting.

The ground shook and the ice shards began to shudder until they cracked and tumbled to the ground, Kara completely lost her balance and found herself back in the snow, ice crashing to the ground around her.

She rolled onto her side, curled up into a ball, her arms thrown over her face to protect her head. As her arms covered her eyes she could see the river of icy water rushing towards her. There was nothing she could do but let the water smash into her, bringing with it the darkness.

* * *

Alex woke up to someone playing with her hair. Fingers gently twisted then released her short strands of hair.

"Alex?" A small voice whispered.

Alex shut her eyes, hoping she could slip back to sleep.

"Alex?" It was Kara's voice, louder this time.

"Are you okay?" Alex asked suddenly awake, fully alert and searching for any signs of a problem.

"Yeah, I just," she stumbled over her words, "I think, that…your…" Kara was now pointing across the room.

"Crap." Alex could now hear her phone vibrating from the table where it was charging and shot up to silence the alarm she had set as a reminder.

"Is everything okay?" Kara's voice was still weak as she called across the room.

"Yeah," Alex smoothed out her clothes as she walked back to Kara, "That was just the alarm to say your next dose of treatment is due."

"Okay, good."

"Is your pain okay?"

"It's better."

"But you're still in pain?"

"It's fine."

Alex frowned and turned back to go and get Kara some analgesia.

"Where are you going?" Kara stuttered.

"To get you some pain killers." Alex continued across the room without a second glance.

"No."

Alex turned back to look at Kara.

"It makes me feel…" Kara paused, struggling to find the word, "Weird." It wasn't quite the word she wanted but it would do.

"Okay, but let me know if it gets any worse," Alex told her and turned away again.

"Where are you going now?" Kara demanded.

"To the bathroom, I'll be two minutes."

Alex returned after two minutes as promised, but when she did, Kara looked panicked, her hands gripping the mattress of the bed as her eyes flitted around the room frantically.

"What's wrong?" Alex ran back to her sister's side, glancing at the monitor but could see nothing out of the ordinary.

"How do I…?" Kara was again struggling with her words, "Go to the bathroom?"

Alex laughed in relief but turned serious when Kara still looked worried.

"You've got a catheter in."

"Oh," Kara visibly relaxed but then reached down, feeling for the tubing lying across her leg.

"Don't touch it," Alex told her.

"Can everyone see it?"

"What?"

"The catheter?"

"Yeah, I guess," Alex shrugged as she went over to the table to start preparing Kara's next infusion.

"That's so embarrassing," Kara cringed and pulled the sheet over her face.

"No one cares, they were too busy worrying about you." Alex told her from across the room.

Kara didn't respond, her face still covered with the bed sheet. It remained covered until Alex had finished and pulled back the sheet to get the infusion started.

Underneath, Kara had been sobbing silently, when she saw her sister's puzzled face she began crying louder, gasping for air between sobs.

"Kara?" Alex set down the tray she was carrying and put her arm around Kara's back, carefully avoiding the broken ribs on her left side.

"What's going on?" Alex asked when Kara's sobs had subsided.

Kara remained silent.

"Please talk to me."

"I didn't mean to…" Kara stuttered, choking on her own tears. "I mean…" She coughed, "I just…"

Alex waited patiently, stroking Kara's back as Kara struggled to find the words.

"I'm sorry." Kara finally managed.

Alex hugged her tighter then pulled away and started to set up the infusion.

"Your speech is getting better. Can I ask you some questions again?"

Kara nodded as Alex cleaned the end of her cannula.

"Do you know what year it is?"

"2017."

"Okay, the month?" She continued as she connected the infusion.

"March."

"Good, the name of the president?"

"Olivia Marsdin." Kara smiled.

"Okay, the next few might be harder," Alex warned, pulling off her gloves.

"Okay."

"Can you tell me what this is?" Alex asked her as she showed her the previously offending black pen.

"A black pen."

"Good," Alex smiled reassuringly, "Can you count down backwards from twenty."

Kara rolled her eyes but she did as she was asked.

"Twenty, nineteen, eighteen, sixteen," Kara stuttered then shook her head before correcting herself, "Seventeen, sixteen."

"Alright, that's enough," Alex reached across to a nearby trolley to grab another item, "What's this?"

Kara stuttered but no words came out, she screwed her eyes shut and took a deep breath and tried again.

"Scissors," she eventually managed, smiling uncertainly.

"Your speech is definitely getting better," Alex reassured as she set the scissors back down on the trolley.

"Does that mean I can go home?" Kara asked hopefully.

"No, you need at least another couple of days of infusions and then we'll need to observe you just to make sure everything stays okay."

Kara didn't argue and let Alex begin her examination of her, listening to her chest with her stethoscope before poking at the fading rash on her skin.

"Do you want me to grab you some breakfast?" Alex asked as she looked at her watch, "Actually it'll be more like lunch," she sighed as she noticed the time.

Kara shook her head and started to curl back onto her side.

"Kara, you've not had anything to eat for days, are you not hungry?"

Kara shook her head again and closed her eyes, signalling the end of the conversation.

"Okay, I won't be long." Alex kissed her sister's forehead gently but Kara ignored her so she left the bay, leaving Kara on her own.


	19. Chapter 19

Alex let the wind whip over her, ruffling her loose t-shirt and sweatpants and chilling her skin as she stood fully exposed to the elements. The stinging cold wasn't enough to get her to go back inside. She needed a minute away from everything but the wind wasn't strong enough to blow away the negative thoughts clinging onto her.

She shivered slightly from the bad memories as well as the bitingly cold wind. She could hear someone approaching up the stairs so she composed herself, gritting her teeth against the harsh weather. It could only be J'onn, only he would dare to approach her whilst she was brooding on the balcony.

She watched the city below as he continued to approach. She was jealous of every single citizen who didn't know what went on inside the DEO behind the façade of the skyscrapers. She imagined them all to be relatively carefree. None of them had to worry about the experimental treatment that they had cooked up in a few days and then given to their little sister. None of them were too afraid to leave the building in case someone that they love stole and ran off with the only thing in the world that could kill them. None of them were worrying about the eating habits of an alien who until recently ate everything in sight but now would barely drink.

"I always find that if someone is reluctant to eat that just plain toast is a good starting point. Something about the smell makes people hungry."

Alex jumped slightly, she knew that J'onn was behind her but she wasn't expecting him to speak.

"I'm sorry," J'onn stood next to her, strong hands resting on the balcony wall, "Your thoughts are just so loud, I'm struggling to block them out without really concentrating."

Alex didn't look at him, she didn't need to. Instead she made a conscious effort to breathe calmly and deeply, counting each breath until her mind settled itself.

"I don't want to add to your stress, but I've had Eliza on the phone. Apparently, she saw a clip of Supergirl on the news and she could tell it was me and not Kara. She wants you, or Kara, to call her, apparently you've not been answering her calls for weeks, and she's not managed to speak to Kara since she was last here at the DEO, when Jeremiah…." J'onn trailed off in his own thoughts.

Alex nodded her head to show she had understood but continued to stare out at the city below, continuing to count her breaths to keep her thoughts at bay.

"She doesn't know Kara is unwell," Alex finally broke the silence that had settled between the two of them.

"I assumed as much," his voice was calm and even, no judgement.

Alex bit her lip until she could taste blood from it, hoping that J'onn would fill the silence for her. He didn't. She stood in silence for as long as she could tolerate, finally breaking when J'onn stepped closer and put his arm around her back.

"It's just after everything with my dad, I feel guilty every time I speak to her. It's my fault we lost him again. Maggie begged me to call her, even threatened to herself but… I'm just trying to protect her."

"I'm not doubting your intentions, or claiming to know what's best for Eliza, but will you please call her and get Kara to speak to her too, if she's well enough."

Alex nodded reluctantly and took a deep breath.

"Her speech is getting better, I think she might be over the worst of it."

"Good, just make sure you are looking after yourself as well, let Maggie take care of you."

Alex nodded again as J'onn rubbed her back, still watching the people on the street.

"Are you coming out of the cold?" J'onn asked eventually.

"In a couple of minutes," Alex told him, still not trusting herself to look at J'onn.

"You know where to find me if you need me," J'onn told her as he turned to leave.

* * *

Kara picked at the now cold toast, pulling the crust away and dropping crumbs everywhere as she watched Alex on her phone through the window. Alex's fingers were clutching the phone tightly and her other hand was gesturing wildly even though the person on the other end couldn't see her. The expression on her face was one she recognised and implied that she was talking to Eliza. She sighed to herself, she had never had to learn how to read lips and she was now struggling to concentrate on watching Alex's mouth. She had managed to make out the words 'Supergirl' and 'Kara' but nothing else.

Through the window Alex angrily jabbed at her phone screen with her finger and then turned to re-enter the room and Kara accidentally caught her eye as she turned around.

"Could you hear that?" Alex asked hopefully as she entered the room.

"No," Kara shook her head and watched as Alex's face fell, disappointed that her powers hadn't magically restored themselves in the two minutes that she had been out of the room.

"That was Eliza," Alex waved the phone in her hand, "J'onn told me to call her because she saw a clip of Supergirl on the news and knew it wasn't you. I tried to explain that you were otherwise engaged at the time with an alien but she wants you to call her, she made me promise."

"Oh."

"Is that not okay?" Alex asked as she tidied up some of her paperwork.

"It's just," Kara stuttered slightly, "How much does she know?"

"She doesn't know anything," Alex stopped gathering her papers and turned back to her sister, "I've not told her."

"Why?"

"I don't know," Alex shrugged turning back to the mess, "After everything with dad, I didn't want her to worry." She shoved the paper into her bag, "Maggie said I should've spoken to her when you were really unwell, in case you… well it doesn't matter now because you're getting better," Alex rambled.

"Are you done with that?" She gestured to the mauled toast crusts to change the subject.

Kara nodded.

"Do you want to try anything else?"

"No."

Alex sighed as she cleared up the plate. Kara watched Alex closely as she made her way around the bay, fumbling with equipment. Things were clearly taking a toll on her big sister. She was wearing a DEO t-shirt and sweatpants, hair dull and tangled, face pale, eyes lifeless. She moved around the room slowly and clumsily. Kara found herself unable to suppress a gasp as Alex reached up to put away some equipment and her t-shirt rode up, revealing how thin Alex had gotten recently, she had clearly lost a significant amount of weight.

Alex heard the gasp and turned her attention to Kara just as the alarm on the infusion machine started to beep. The noise startled Kara out of her thoughts and she moved suddenly in the bed, ripping the already precarious cannula from her arm. Blood began to pour from the hole in her arm and Kara could only stare helplessly as blood seeped into her gown and the bed sheets.

Firm hands were pressing gauze to the wound within seconds, gripping Kara's arm almost painfully. Her arm where the cannula had been was stinging, almost burning, causing Kara to whimper. Alex relieved some of the pressure she was applying but her arm continued to burn. Kara found herself unable to speak again and instead reached for Alex's hands to push her off her arm.

"Damn!" Alex swore as she moved the gauze to reveal Kara's now swollen arm.

Kara whimpered again.

"It's okay, the last bit of the medication just leaked into the tissue when the cannula fell out," Alex tried to reassure as she poked at the swelling before putting the gauze back over the hole and reaching for a Band-Aid.

"I'm going to have to put another one in straight away," Alex told her as she smoothed the plaster across Kara's arm.

"Really? Can't it wait until the next one is due?"

"No," Alex told her firmly and began to gather the necessary equipment before returning to Kara, examining her arms for appropriate veins. "I want one ready to use just in case."

"But you said I'm getting better," Kara winced as Alex prodded her forearm with the needle.

"You are, but you still don't have any of your powers," Alex told her as she placed the cannula and took some blood samples.

"I feel better though, that toast helped."

"That was J'onn's idea," Alex told her as she pressed the cannula dressing down and began to wrap a bandage around it.

"This is just extra protection for it," she told her as she pulled the bandage tightly, "I'm worried that if your powers do make an appearance then I won't be able to get a new cannula in," she explained as she secured the bandage with some tape.

"I'll be careful with it," Kara promised.

"I'm just going to take these bloods to the lab and then I'll be right back."

* * *

Maggie shifted slightly on the couch and managed to silence a whimper as Alex yet again startled herself awake and elbowed her in the ribs.

"Alex?" she whispered gently.

"Yeah?" Alex snuggled into Maggie's chest.

"Are you sure you wouldn't prefer to go home tonight?" Maggie gently began to untangle herself from her girlfriend.

"No, I'm fine."

"You keep dozing off and then waking yourself up, I think your body is trying to tell you something."

"Hmm."

"Alex?" Maggie shifted again, this time wriggling until she could sit up, forcing Alex to sit up with her. She reached across to Alex's laptop that was streaming Netflix and paused the apocalyptic movie that Alex had chosen.

"I'm sorry but my poor ribs cannot take any more of your elbow."

Maggie wriggled until she was completely free of Alex and swung her legs from the sofa to the floor. Standing up and stretching slowly she surveyed the medical bay. The main lights in the bay were off but the sun lights illuminated Kara, who had been asleep for longer than Maggie had been at the DEO. Maggie had managed to finish work on time for once and as soon as she had finished for the day she armed herself with pizza and headed to keep Alex company at Kara's bedside. She had managed to coax Alex into eating before they had settled to watch the film so that Alex could keep up her vigil at Kara's bedside.

When Maggie's gaze made its way back to Alex she was still sat on the couch, watching Maggie, her face full of sleep, her hair stuck out at odd angles.

"Do you have to go?" Alex asked, standing up on slightly shaky legs.

"I can't sleep properly here and we're carrying out a dawn raid tomorrow, I need to get a good night's sleep." Maggie told her as she picked up her bag and jacket.

"Okay."

"Please come home, just for tonight, you need a proper night's sleep as well."

"Someone needs to make sure Kara is alright."

"J'onn will be here."

"He has to worry about the whole DEO and filling in for Supergirl, he has enough on his plate. She's my sister, she's my responsibility." Alex told her firmly, eyes glancing at Kara to make sure she hadn't woken her.

"I just think it'd be better for both you and Kara if you slept in your own bed for the night," Maggie whispered.

"Not tonight, I'll see how she is tomorrow night."

"Okay," Maggie zipped up her jacket, not wanting to argue.

Alex took Maggie's hand and pulled Maggie closer to her.

"I'm sorry," she traced the bruises on Maggie's cheek gently with her fingers before kissing her on the lips.

"I love you." Alex whispered as they parted.

"I love you too," Maggie told her and then slung her bag over her shoulder and trudged out of the medical bay without a glance back at Alex or Kara.


	20. Chapter 20

"I'm tired," Kara moaned after Alex had disconnected the morning's infusion and sat herself down with her laptop.

"You were asleep for over fifteen hours."

"Really?"

"Really."

"I don't feel like I slept for that long," Kara told her as she sat herself up a bit more, "Where's Maggie?"

"At work. She's tracking illegal shipments of alien alcohol, she raided a cargo ship this morning."

"Is she okay?"

"Yeah, I think so, why?" Alex was distractedly typing on her laptop.

"I've not seen her for a while but last time I did her face was still pretty bruised."

"She stopped by last night, while you were snoring."

Kara ignored Alex's attempt to divert the conversation slightly.

"Have you left the DEO recently?" Kara probed.

Alex sighed, finishing the sentence on the report she was typing and then closed her laptop.

"No. Not since J'onn flew me to the desert to get you, and before that not since Maggie and I found you at your apartment after you took a swim in the ocean."

"Yeah, a lot has happened recently," Kara mused as she started to pick at the bandage covering the cannula in her arm.

"Don't do that." Alex stood up, swatted away Kara's hand lightly and leaned over her to smooth the end of the bandage down again as she perched herself at the edge of Kara's bed.

"Budge up." She wriggled onto the bed next to Kara.

"Alex! There is not enough room for both of us in this bed."

"Yes, there is." Alex swung her legs onto the bed and nestled into Kara as much as she could without hurting her.

"Alex?" Kara broke the silence that had fallen over them for the last five minutes.

"Hmm?"

"You should go back to your apartment and sleep in your own bed tonight"

Alex ignored Kara and clung tighter to her sister.

"Alex?" Kara hugged her back with one arm, "Alex, are you even listening to me?"

Alex eventually looked up at her sister, tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

"Last time I left the building for like five minutes just to get some Chinese food you stole some kryptonite and flew away," she finally whispered.

"Well I don't think I'll be able to even make it out of this stupid bed on my own, yet alone to the roof the state I'm in," Kara tried to joke.

"Kara…" Alex brushed the tears from her eyes.

Kara was no longer looking at Alex but was yet again picking at the bandage on her arm.

"I just think you should try and get out of here for a bit, its bad enough that I'm stuck here, you don't need to be too."

"Are you sure you've not seen Maggie recently?" Alex moved Kara's hands away from her bandage again, holding it in her own. "You sound an awful lot like her."

"Alex…"

"Fine. If you are okay after your infusion this evening then I will sleep at my apartment tonight, J'onn can keep an eye on you."

"Not this again, I don't need a babysitter."

Alex clung back onto Kara.

"Tough, because it's the only way I'm going to leave you here."

Kara let Alex hug her for a while before she became uncomfortable, her leg was becoming painful in their current position.

"Can you help me have a wash and put some clean clothes on?" Kara asked, trying to shuffle into a better position.

"Of course, whatever you need."

* * *

Alex sighed as she watched Kara clumsily try to brush her hair. Kara was sulking as Alex had refused to let her try to get off the bed and into the wheelchair to go to the bathroom to have a shower. She had also refused to remove the catheter as she was worried that Kara would then get up when she shouldn't.

"Please let me help you." Alex stood up and approached her sister who was struggling to fight off the tangles in her hair with just her hairbrush.

"You said it yourself, I'm getting better," Kara continued the argument that had started over an hour ago but relinquished control of the hairbrush to Alex anyway.

"You are." Alex began to gently tease the brush through her hair.

"So, let me try walking."

"Kara, you've still got a hole in your thigh and your hip isn't much better. You have to take things slowly, I don't think your leg is strong enough to try walking on."

Kara remained silent and let Alex continue to brush through her tangled hair.

"I was walking before with your help," she told her eventually.

"That kryptonite wound is going to make it a lot harder and you are completely powerless at the moment."

"Please?"

"Can we see how you are tomorrow?"

Kara nodded and Alex smoothed her hair into a loose plait. Just as she had finished there was a light knock on the door and both sisters turned simultaneously to see Winn stood in the doorway.

"Hey, is it okay to come in?"

"Of course," Alex reassured, she watched as Kara's eyes lit up but she also stiffened slightly, clearly feeling self-conscious. Alex eased a blanket over Kara and then kissed her on the cheek.

"I'm actually meeting Maggie for her lunch break," she told Winn, who was still standing awkwardly at the door.

"Yeah, I'm on lunch as well," Winn told her as he wandered over to Kara's side.

"Call me if you need me," Alex told the pair as she grabbed her coat and then left the room.

* * *

Alex let a smile form on her lips as she texted Maggie who had just informed her that she had made it back to work. As she stepped out of the elevator she hesitated slightly, something was wrong. The main corridor seemed unusually empty and silent, the only sounds appeared to be coming from the direction of the medical bay. Instincts kicked in and she ran towards the noise, hand hovering over the holster on her hip.

As she approached the medical bay she could see a crowd of people at the far end. Trying to keep calm, she entered the room and pushed her way through the crowd of agents and medics to find Winn being examined on one of the treatment chairs, his face screwed up in pain. Kara was nowhere in sight.

"That's definitely broken," one of the medics was telling Winn as Alex interrupted them.

"Where's Supergirl?" she demanded.

The group of agents backed away slowly and then dispersed, Alex glared at every single one of them before turning her attention back to Winn.

"Winn?"

"She's okay, she's just in the bathroom."

"She's not supposed to be out of bed."

"Well I realise that now, but she told me she'd been walking with just someone next to her for support, so I thought it'd be okay."

"What happened to your arm?"

"She wasn't very steady. She was clinging onto my arm for dear life, and then she tripped and well... this happened," Winn pointed with his good arm. "Luckily Agent Jenkins was here to help. I didn't realise she had her super strength back."

"Neither did I," Alex's voice trailed off until she met the eye of one of the medics.

"Make sure that arm gets x-rayed and put a back slab on it," she turned back to Winn who looked in agony. Knowing what it felt like to be on the wrong side of Kara's strength she added, "And make sure you give him some morphine."

She didn't wait for the medic to confirm her orders, she headed for the bathroom, hesitating at the entrance, unsure of what state she expected to find Kara in. She could hear her sobbing through the door so she knocked gently and called her sister's name before she pushed the door open without waiting for permission.

Kara was huddled in the corner, her face resting against the tiles of the shower area. There was a hand sized hole on the tiles above her head where it looked like she had tried to steady herself on the wall.

"Kara?" She kept her distance, gently shutting the door as she watched Kara for any kind of response.

"Kara?" She gently called again before approaching her sister slowly, kneeling down and crawling on the floor next to her.

"Is he okay?"

"He will be."

"I'm sorry," Kara was now rocking, her head hitting the wall gently.

"I know you are," Alex smoothed a stray hair behind Kara's ear, "Should we stand up?"

Kara shook her head and tried to curl herself even further into the corner, as she did her gown rode up her thigh revealing the now blood-stained dressings.

"So, you've got your super strength back, huh?" Alex continued to stroke her hair, patiently waiting for Kara to get her thoughts together.

"Have any of your other powers reappeared?"

Kara continued to sob and rock against the wall.

"Come on," Alex stood up and held her hand out for Kara. She took it reluctantly, pushing up off the floor, leaving a dent where she did.

"Can I have a shower?"

Alex looked reluctantly around at the already trashed bathroom and then at her broken sister.

"I don't know."

"Please, I just want to feel normal again."

"Okay, just hold on a second." Alex left Kara holding a rail in the bathroom and went back out into the bay before returning a second later with a plastic chair and helped her sister to sit down on it. She then left again and returned with some pyjamas and wash things.

"How on earth did you convince Winn to carry your catheter bag?" She laughed slightly as she turned on the water.

* * *

The DEO seemed even darker than usual. There were agents everywhere either preparing to finish for the day or to start for the night. No one paid her any attention as she wandered the command centre looking for a familiar face.

"Hey Maggie, what's up?" James called to her across the room.

"Is Winn around?"

James looked around hesitantly.

"You didn't hear?"

"Hear what?"

James gently took the sleeve of her jacket and guided Maggie to the edge of the room, away from the majority of the agents.

"Kara broke Winn's arm this afternoon. He's at home now."

"Is he okay?"

"Yeah, he will be."

"What happened?"

"It sounds like Kara talked him into helping her out of bed but wasn't very good on her feet and fell, breaking Winn's arm in the process."

"Is Kara alright?"

"Inconsolable by the sound of it, but I've not seen her, Alex said she didn't want any visitors this evening."

"I guess this means Alex won't be leaving the DEO for the night?" Maggie sighed.

"I don't know, probably not." James admitted.

"Mr Olsen, you're needed," J'onn was calling across the room.

"You work for the DEO now?" Maggie raised her eyebrow.

"No, but I'm helping out where I can while Supergirl can't," James shrugged and headed over to J'onn.

Maggie met J'onn's eyes and he nodded to her before turning to James to brief him. Maggie sighed again and headed to find Alex.

Maggie couldn't immediately see Alex when she peered through the window. Kara's pale form was sprawled on the bed under the sunlamps, her eyes were closed but her eyelids were red, as were her cheeks, the skin raw, clearly having been exposed to salty tears recently. The monitor above her head was turned off and she no longer had any wires attached to her. The catheter bag that had been hanging at the side of her bed had vanished, the only things left were a bandaged cannula in her arm and the dressing peeking out from under her pyjama shorts. She looked better.

Alex was perched on the edge of a plastic chair in the corner of the room, her elbow propped up on a table, her hand lazily supporting her head. She was biting her nails as she watched Kara sleep.

Maggie continued to watch the women through the glass, reluctant to disturb either one of them. Alex eventually seemed to sense her presence and turned around so Maggie signalled for her to come and talk to her in the corridor.

"Hey," Alex whispered as she shut the door gently behind her.

"James told me what happened."

"Oh."

"Is Winn's arm going to be okay?"

"It's fractured so he'll need to be in plaster for at least a month but there should be no long-term damage."

"Good," Maggie's gaze turned back to Kara, "And Kara?"

"She just keeps apologising. She's pretending to be asleep right now."

"So, she has her powers back?"

"As far as I can tell it's just her strength. Her cells are now absorbing solar radiation and her levels are hovering around 50% but so far there's no sign of her other powers."

"Is she healing again?"

"No. When she fell she opened her thigh wound again and she's still got a bit of a temperature."

"Do you need me to bring you anything from your apartment?"

"What?" Alex tore her gaze away from Kara and looked at Maggie in confusion, "I thought you were here to take me home?"

"I was, but I assumed you'd be staying here after today."

"I don't think that's what's best for Kara or for myself right now."

Maggie tried to mask her surprise but failed miserably.

"She's absorbing sunlight, J'onn will be here tonight and I think she needs some space from me," Alex explained as she looked back to her sister, "And honestly, I need sleep. Proper sleep."

"Do you want me to stay here with her?"

Alex remained silent, watching Kara as she turned onto her side in the bed.

"No, J'onn will be here," she answered eventually.

"Okay, well whenever you're ready," Maggie placed her hand on Alex's shoulder.

"I'll be one second," Alex re-entered the medical bay and pressed a couple of buttons on the sunbed and then some more on one of the computers, checked her phone and then joined Maggie on the corridor.

"Okay, let's go."


	21. Chapter 21

A shrill beeping noise penetrated Maggie's dream, manifesting itself as the bell in her high school based nightmare. Finally realising she was in her girlfriend's bed and not an English class she contemplated opening her eyes but just as she did she felt Alex shift in the bed and a second later the offending phone stopped making noise. A cold draft swept over her as Alex got out of the bed so she wriggled and pulled the covers back over herself, still refusing to open her eyes and give up on getting back to sleep.

She listened to Alex as she scrambled down the steps to her living area.

After a couple of minutes of complete silence Maggie sat up to see where Alex had gone. She could just about make out Alex in the kitchen at the opposite end of the apartment, the phone in her hands the only source of light as she leant against the kitchen counter.

"Is everything okay?" Maggie asked as she approached Alex, pulling out a stool to sit next to her at the counter.

Alex didn't respond immediately, too focused on her phone to notice her surroundings. Maggie leaned in closer to watch the images on Alex's phone. It appeared to be security footage from the DEO medical bay, two individuals were huddled around Kara who was sat on the edge of her bed.

"What's going on?"

Alex continued to gaze at the phone screen.

"Alex?" Maggie moved to take the phone out of Alex's grip in order to get her attention. The move startled Alex who then clumsily dropped the phone on the counter.

"Is Kara okay?" Maggie asked Alex who was now staring at her with wide eyes.

"She's being sick."

"Is that what that alarm was?"

"Kind of. That was notifying me that Kara had moved from the sunbed."

Maggie raised her eyebrow but Alex couldn't see it, having already turned back to watch the footage on her phone. Even if the screen of the phone was small it was still high-quality footage of J'onn helping Kara to lie back in bed whilst a medic cleaned up her sick and found a clean bowl.

"I need to go and see her."

"Alex…"

Alex got up to start to get ready to go into the DEO but Maggie reached out for her arm, stopping her in her tracks.

"She's okay, look," Maggie pointed, "She's back in bed, they will call you if there was anything they couldn't handle."

Alex didn't take her eyes off the screen, watching J'onn rearrange Kara's blanket as Kara struggled to get comfortable.

"Please come back to bed."

Alex nodded but didn't take her eyes off her phone screen as Maggie led her back up the steps to her bed.

Alex let Maggie hold her but as soon as Maggie was snoring softly she reached back for her phone from her night stand and checked in on Kara who now appeared to be asleep. J'onn had gone back to his work at the nearby table and the medic was running the nightly checks.

Alex sighed and put her phone back on the table and tried to get back to sleep.

* * *

"So, when will I be able to stop having these infusions?" Kara asked as Alex disconnected her IV.

"Hopefully tomorrow morning will be your last one," Alex flushed the cannula, "I'm going to take some blood from you throughout the day just to make sure but the fact that your cells are storing solar energy means that you're probably in the clear."

Kara watched her sister dispose of the infusion before washing her hands and pulling on another set of gloves. She then approached Kara with a needle. Kara held her breath as the needle approached her skin. She didn't know if she was relieved or disappointed when the needle pierced her skin and Alex began to draw the blood from her arm.

As Alex drew the second bottle of her blood Kara felt her vision begin to blur and everything became silent. Alex swapped for the final bottle and Kara felt more and more dizzy, she let her eyes shut and her head fall backwards onto the bed.

When she opened her eyes again, Alex was looming over her, eyes boring into her both confused and concerned. Kara blinked rapidly, trying to bring her vision back into focus until suddenly she could see Alex's whole skeleton. She closed her eyes and shook her head violently until her ears were ringing and then sat up and tried to swing her legs off the bed.

"Kara? What's happening?" Alex tried to get her to lie back down on the bed.

"Sick."

No further explanation was needed, that one word had Alex running for a bowl. She got back and had it in position just in time to catch the contents of Kara's stomach. When her stomach seemed to have settled she pushed the bowl away. The room around her was still spinning and she again felt herself falling back onto the bed, eyes falling closed against her will.

"Kara?" Alex's voice rattled around her head.

"Kara?"

"Shhh."

"Is it your hearing?"

"No, x-ray vision, but it's giving me a headache."

"I don't remember them ever being so bad that you passed out." Alex was now shining her pen torch into Kara's eyes, the bright light blinded her and she pushed her sister away gently.

"I didn't pass out."

"You passed out twice."

Kara tried to glare at Alex but her vision distorted again and then turned into x-ray, sending another shooting pain through her head.

"I'm just going to check your vitals," Alex told her as she turned on the monitor and then wrapped a blood pressure cuff around Kara's arm and placed a probe on one of her fingers.

"I'm fine, really. It just took me by surprise."

"Do you want your glasses?"

"Actually, yeah, please."

"I would expect all of your powers to begin to reappear soon, your cells are currently at 88% solar radiation," Alex told her as she handed Kara her glasses and the cuff on Kara's arm deflated, triggering an alarm on the monitor above her head.

"What now?" Kara groaned as she pushed the glasses up her nose.

"Your blood pressure is just a little bit low, I'm not really surprised, you've barely eaten and you are not really drinking either."

"Because everything makes me feel sick."

"I think it's just a side effect of the medication, it should get better once the final dose has worked its way out of your system." Alex stroked her sister's face, "But for now I think I might give you some IV fluids, just to make sure."

Kara sat forward on the bed and took some deep breaths, fidgeting with the glasses on her face. When Alex approached her with a bag of fluids she held out her arm for her sister to attach them to the cannula. Alex took advantage of Kara's new-found compliance.

"Can I examine your leg?"

Kara nodded her permission and so Alex gently removed the dressing from her thigh. Kara watched her expression closely for any signs of a problem but Alex's face remained neutral as she changed her gloves.

Kara winced as Alex began to clean the wound but leant forward to get a better look at it for herself.

"It's looking so much better," Alex told her as she began to apply a new dressing, "It's finally healing again. Can I check your hip as well?"

Again, Kara nodded, lifting her top and lowering the waistband on her shorts so that Alex could remove the dressing. The kryptonite wounds were almost completely healed, barely more than scratches on the surface of her skin.

"I don't think I even need to put a dressing back on this," Alex told her before helping Kara to readjust her pyjamas.

* * *

Alex sighed as she headed back to the medical bay. She had left Kara dozing under the sunlamps but she needed to talk to her to try to start to understand what she had been going through in the last few months.

She had had plenty of time to think about things sat at Kara's bedside recently, about everything that had gone wrong between them. She had argued with Kara when she had suggested that she move to Metropolis with Clark, she had accused her of ignoring her in favour of Clark and then she had gone and done the same thing when she had met Maggie. Alex didn't feel guilty for her relationship with Maggie but maybe she hadn't found the right balance yet.

In hindsight, Kara had clearly been struggling for a while, even before she lost her job at CatCo. The rift created between Kara and her friends when she found out about Guardian had only got worse as James and Winn had continued to play superhero without her. Missed sisters' nights, game nights and an Earth birthday had all added to the distance between Kara and her support system. In the end none of them had noticed that she had moved out of her loft and into that crappy high-rise apartment.

Maybe she should have let Kara move away, she might not have felt so alone and isolated with Clark in Metropolis. Then they might never have found her father and he might never have betrayed them. Alex felt like that had been the real turning point in their relationship, the point of no return.

She had been working on a speech in her head, a segue into a conversation about everything, but when she entered the medical bay she found Kara perched on the edge of her bed, her legs dangling, feet not quite reaching the floor. A tech was nervously standing at her side.

"Are you alright?"'

"I need to get up. That stupid fluid has gone right through me." Kara pointed at the nearly empty bag of fluid hanging from the IV stand.

"Just give me a second to disconnect that and then you can walk with me," Alex told her, much to the visible relief of the tech, before going to wash her hands.

"Okay, are you ready?" She took her place at Kara's side.

Kara nodded then shuffled forward so her feet were on the ground. Alex put her arm around her sister and stayed close as Kara stood up, tentatively putting some weight on her injured leg. She gritted her teeth against the initial pain but it got better with every step until she was safely in the bathroom.

Two minutes later, Kara called her name and Alex opened the door to find Kara washing her hands at the sink.

"Do you want to try walking further?" Alex asked as Kara dried her hands.

"Yeah," Kara linked Alex's arm and let her lead her back out into the medical bay. Alex hesitated as she reached out for the doors that led onto the back corridor, searching for any stray agents, but it was empty so she held the door open for Kara to limp through.

"Let's try to make it to the window," Alex suggested and started down the corridor. Kara reached out for the wall with her free arm, using it to assist her but gradually she moved away so that Alex was her only support.

They eventually made it to the window at the end of the corridor which looked out over the south of National City. Alex let go of Kara and let her head rest on the cool window pane. The cold glass did little to sooth the headache that was brewing.

"What's wrong?" Kara's voice broke through the haze.

"I'm tired," Alex admitted.

"I thought that you might have had a better night's sleep at your apartment."

"It helped but I wasted a lot of the night worrying about you."

"You don't have to worry about me."

"Kara, I will always worry about you, especially when I leave you in the medical bay, barely recovered from some random alien parasite," Alex moved away from the window, shrugging off her own bout of nausea.

"Alex..."

"Kara, I don't know what I would do if I actually lost you."

"You have Maggie."

"Kara, please, it's not the same. Why on Earth did you take that kryptonite?"

Alex watched her sister squirm. In that second, she was angry and she wanted to talk even though she was making Kara uncomfortable.

"I didn't mean to."

Alex laughed, "So the door to the biometrically sealed cabinet just fell off and the kryptonite just walked right out and into your pockets." Alex knew she sounded ridiculous and a little bit like her mother.

"I didn't want to hurt anyone, I didn't have control over my stupid powers, I was going to kill someone."

"So, you thought you'd kill yourself instead?" Alex furiously wiped the tears from her eyes as she watched Kara hold back onto the wall for support.

"That's not what I was doing."

"Then please enlighten me Kara, because that's all I have been able to think about since I brought you back from the desert completely unconscious only to find out that it was you who took the kryptonite that almost killed you."

Alex gave up wiping away her tears and let them run freely down her cheeks.

"I kept the bits of kryptonite in their lead containers. I fell out of the sky because those stupid worms chose the moment I was in the air to drain away all the solar energy in my cells," Kara was shouting now and Alex found herself speechless, not just because Kara was yelling at her, but because her eyes were glowing red, heat vision building up.

"Fuck!" Both sisters swore in unison.

Alex's instinct was to get out of the way but Kara was sinking to the floor, her hands firmly against her ears. She ran to catch her falling sister, easing her gently to the ground and pulling her tightly into her chest.

Kara was shaking violently, hands still clasped to her ears.

"It's going to be alright, just take deep breaths."

Kara was rocking herself now, trying to calm herself down but Alex could feel the heat from her eyes.

"Is it your hearing as well?"

Kara nodded furiously against her chest as Alex checked the corridor but no one was in sight.

Suddenly Kara was pushing her away, overbalancing her and sending her sprawling to the floor. She watched helplessly as Kara took off down the corridor towards the service elevator in clumsy bursts of superspeed, taking a chunk out of the wall as she went. Finally, she fell completely, slamming into a storage cage and sending it flying into the elevator doors.

"Kara?" Alex stumbled to her feet as the metal cage hit the metal doors.

"Stay back."

Alex ignored her and made her way over to her sister.

"Please, just give me a minute. I don't want to hurt you." Kara tried to crawl further away to try to maintain the distance she had created between Alex and herself.

Alex continued to ignore Kara and threw herself on the floor and pulled her back tightly into her chest, rocking her gently, fighting Kara's efforts to get out of her grip.

Kara's sobs settled and her breathing evened out but Alex stayed on the floor with her, not daring to let go of her sister until the heat behind her eyes finally settled.


	22. Chapter 22

Light flickered across Maggie's eyelids, startling her from her slumber and bringing with it a sense of uneasiness. Something had changed.

She had been sat with Kara, waiting for Alex to be finished in her lab. Kara had listened politely as she told her about her day but hadn't spoken more than a couple of words. At some point Maggie had run out of small talk and Kara had dozed off, leaving Maggie to fend off sleep on her own.

Maggie scanned the medical bay for the reason behind the uneasy feeling in her stomach.

Kara was floating just above her bed. Her eyes were firmly shut, her blonde hair hanging limply, curls skirting the bed below.

"Kara?" The blonde didn't stir.

"Kara?" She began to desperately search the room for someone to help her.

"Kara, wake up."

When she still didn't respond she ran from the room and off down the corridor, pulling her phone from her pocket to phone Alex on the way. She was so distracted and flustered that she ran straight into someone as she ran around the corner.

"Maggie? What the hell?" Alex asked as she picked her bag back up off the floor.

Maggie grabbed her arm and pulled her back to the medical bay.

"Maggie?"

"It's Kara."

Alex didn't need further explanation and ran to see what the problem was, overtaking Maggie and almost taking the door off its hinges on the way through it. She burst into the medical bay to find Kara still hovering inches above the bed.

"Kara?" Alex approached her sister and reached up to her ear, removed an ear plug and called her sister's name again.

"Huh?" Kara mumbled as Alex guided her back down to her bed.

"You're freaking Maggie out," Alex laughed.

"Sorry," Kara mumbled without opening her eyes and turned onto her side, now safely on the bed, snuggling into the pillows.

Alex replaced the ear plug in Kara's ear and readjusted her blanket before turning back to Maggie who still looked shook up.

"She does that sometimes," Alex shrugged and then turned to leave the bay again.

"Are you coming?" She called from the door when Maggie didn't follow her.

"Mags?"

"Sorry, but what exactly was that?"

"She can fly again," Alex smiled as she led Maggie from the bay.

"So that was what? Sleep flying?" Maggie asked doubtfully.

"I guess."

"And she's always done that?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"She looks like that scene from the exorcist, I was waiting for her head to start spinning around," Maggie muttered as she continued to follow Alex who was now laughing.

"It's not funny, I didn't know whether to run or to start chanting," Maggie couldn't help but smile herself.

"The power of Christ compels you," Alex chanted as the pair entered the elevator.

"Shut up," Maggie swatted Alex playfully, "You're going to give me nightmares, that movie freaks me out."

* * *

"I am not going to miss this," Kara groaned as she felt the familiar sensation of her heart beating too fast just five minutes after Alex had started the infusion.

Alex ignored her and carried on looking over the fresh images from the CT scan and x-rays she had forced Kara to have first thing that morning.

Kara's ribs were no longer broken and Alex had already sent the images from her head CT to Matt and was impatiently waiting for his opinion. As far as she could tell there was still evidence of a small subdural haematoma, it had diminished significantly but it was still there. Alex wasn't really surprised; Kara's speech was still a little stunted and her leg still hadn't healed properly either.

Her unintentional frown attracted Kara's attention.

"What's up?"

"What?"

"You look worried. Are you looking at my scan? Is something wrong?"

Alex shut her laptop and turned her attention to her sister.

"Nothing's wrong. There is still a bit of blood on your brain but I'm just waiting for someone to give me a second opinion."

"Okay."

They lapsed into silence for a few minutes, Kara staring blankly out of the window into the corridor and Alex staring at Kara.

"Kara, what are you feeling right now?"

"Bored."

"No, I mean do you have any symptoms? Do you feel unwell?"

"Tired mostly," Kara began picking at the end of a stray strand of her hair, "I've got a bit of a headache but not like yesterday and I feel kind of sick. Also, since you started the medication my heart feels like its beating ridiculously fast. But none of these things are new," Kara shrugged.

"And you can still use your powers?"

"I don't know," Kara shrugged again, "I've not tried, I mean other than the hearing which I can't seem to get rid of without these," she removed both her ear plugs simultaneously to show Alex.

The earplugs were a relic from when Kara's early days on Earth and the DEO had since adapted them further so that the amount of sound they allowed to enter her ear could be adjusted. She had been wearing them ever since Alex had finally been able to help her back to her bed the day before when her hearing and heat vision had returned. Kara grimaced as every noise from the medical equipment and machines drifted into her ears before quickly replacing the plugs and readjusting the setting until she was comfortable.

"I don't think you are giving yourself enough time to control your hearing before you give up and put those plugs in you know." Alex told her, moving to remove the ear plugs again.

"Can we just leave it for now?" Kara pleaded.

"Okay," Alex held up her hands in surrender and moved to sit back down, "But what about your other powers?"

Kara pouted but seeing that Alex looked anxious she proceeded to lower her glasses and squinted, first activating her x-ray vision and then her heat vision, managing to control herself so as to not actually fire off any beams.

"Seems okay." She readjusted her glasses.

"Freeze breath?"

Kara gulped in a small amount of air before expelling a cool breath, purposefully aiming the weak blast of it in her sister's direction.

"Strength?"

"Just give me your hand and find out," Kara snarked, growing fed up of Alex's testing but instantly regretted the comment, images of Winn's broken arm flashing across her eyes.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean that, I would never…" Tears were rapidly forming in her eyes.

Alex interrupted Kara with a hug and an apology of her own, rubbing Kara's back until she relaxed.

"So, the main thing missing is your invulnerability but I assume that once you've completely healed that will follow," Alex explained as she unwrapped herself from her sister.

She studied her features quietly for a second and then reached out to tuck a loose strand of hair behind Kara's ear.

"Winn's going to be fine you know, have you spoken to him yet?" Alex asked as she went back to her seat.

Kara shook her head and wiped away her tears and Alex reached across and handed her a box of tissues, hesitating slightly when a wave of nausea swept over her. The light and heat from the sunlamps around Kara was becoming a little unbearable. She closed her eyes for a second.

"Are you alright?" Kara was sat forward on the bed when Alex opened her eyes again.

"I think I'm just tired," Alex rubbed her eye, "Will you be alright if I go and grab a coffee?"

"Yeah sure," Kara frowned slightly.

"Put your crinkle away." Alex poked her finger at the crease in Kara's forehead, "Do you want anything?" Alex asked hopefully.

"No, thanks."

"Okay, I won't be long."

Alex hurried down the corridor until she reached her lab. She kept the main lights off to prevent a further headache and so rummaged through her desk draw in the dim light until she found the box of medication she was looking for. She popped a pill from its foil and swallowed it down with some water.

She had been feeling sick for the last few days and whilst the antiemetics were helping she needed to check there were no serious problems. She hadn't tested her own blood since she stopped testing Kara's medication on herself and so decided she would do that now just to check for any residual effects.

Alex gathered her equipment and perched herself on the stool, turning on the desk lamp as she did. After cleaning the skin on the crook of her elbow and letting it dry she wrapped a tourniquet and pulled it tightly around her arm, struggling slightly to secure it. After a quick poke at her vein she inserted the needle quickly, ignoring the sting and drawing the blood into sample bottles.

"Alex, what the hell?" Maggie ran into the lab looking ready to tackle her.

"Crap!" Alex lost her concentration and she lost the vein. She withdrew the needle and threw it angrily into the sharps bin before grabbing another. She was about to snap at Maggie when she saw the look of terror in Maggie's eyes.

Alex froze in position, needle still in hand as the nauseous crept back into her stomach. She took a deep breath before moving again and Maggie watched from the doorway as she removed the tourniquet from her arm.

"I'm sorry," Alex didn't manage to make eye contact with Maggie, instead she placed a small plaster over the needle hole in her forearm, "I'm just need to run some tests on my blood."

Maggie was still watching from the door, waiting for further explanation.

"I just keep feeling unwell, I'm worried it might be a residual side effect of the drug."

"You scared the hell out of me. I thought you were experimenting again." Maggie visibly relaxed and made her way into the lab.

"I just need to make sure that there will be no long-term damage for Kara."

"Or for yourself you mean?"

Alex ignored the comment and began preparing her samples.

"Is Kara okay? I just walked past and she looked fine to me. She looks better every time I see her."

"Yeah, and that's the last infusion that is running now but I'm still a bit worried about her lack of appetite and all the vomiting, I'm just being thorough," Alex told her as Maggie's phone began to ring.

"Oh, I've got to go, that's my partner again," Maggie announced as she checked her phone.

"Did you need something?"

"Nope, J'onn was just helping me out with something from the DEO archives, he let me stop by before the day shift team briefing. I just thought I would check up on you and Kara since you were long gone when my alarm went off this morning."

"Oh, well I just wanted to get Kara's scan done before her morning infusion so that Matt could take a look at it ASAP."

Maggie's phone began ringing again and she picked it up this time.

"Sawyer," she answered as she smiled at Alex, "Alright, I'm not far from there, I'll be ten minutes," she told the person on the phone as she glanced at her watch and then ended the call.

"I've really got to go, I'll see you later," she kissed Alex on the cheek before rushing out of the lab.

* * *

"Hey, Kara?" Maggie was walking through the doorway, footsteps heavy on the floor, "Now that you're awake and feeling better, how about you start answering your phone?" She sounded annoyed and Kara looked confused.

"Why? What's going on?" Alex asked, glancing up from her computer screen.

"Don't you even start, you're even worse," Maggie frowned as she made her way to Kara. "These are for you," Maggie placed a fresh bag of clothes at the end of the bed before walking to the wall, unplugging Kara's phone and handing it to her abruptly.

"Lena Luthor reported Kara Danvers missing today." Maggie threw herself down dramatically onto the couch so that she was lying right across it.

"She what?" Alex jumped to her feet and began pacing the gap between Kara's bed and the sofa that a frazzled Maggie was sprawled across.

"I've spent the best part of my day trying to sort this mess out. Apparently, she returned from a week-long conference in New York three days ago and Kara was supposed to meet her for lunch yesterday but didn't show up."

Kara looked blankly at Maggie, she was still a bit hazy on what day of the week it actually was and how long she had been in the DEO for.

"She broke into your old apartment and when she had seen you clearly no longer lived there she tracked you down. She found your new apartment and went over there this morning but since it is completely trashed and one of the windows is boarded-up she took it upon herself to stop by the local precinct to report you missing."

"Did anyone else go to the apartment?" Alex asked, concerned of what any crime scene techs would be able to pick up at the apartment, especially the alien blood that nobody had got around to cleaning up properly.

"I managed to intercept the neighbourhood officers as they were entering her building."

"How did you manage that?"

"Someone I used to work with took the missing person report, recognised the surname and gave me a call but sent his officers over there in the meantime. I hit the sirens and got there before they got a chance to look around properly."

Alex nodded her head as she continued to pace, her teeth worrying her bottom lip, her hands digging into her hips.

"And Lena?" Alex asked eventually.

"Like a dog with a fucking bone. She's been calling me all day and eventually turned up to my crime scene and refused to leave."

"What did you tell her?"

"I tried to say I had overheard Kara thinking about going to Midvale for a few days but apparently she'd already tracked down and spoken to Eliza when neither of you would answer."

"She what?" Alex had stopped pacing and started shouting.

"That's your other problem. Eliza is threatening to drop everything and come to the city tomorrow. Apparently, Kara never called her the other day and after speaking to Lena she's worried. She's also been calling you both today and again neither of you are answering your stupid phones!" Maggie threw her head back on the coach cushion, exasperated.

Alex shifted Maggie's legs out of the way and sat down on the couch, head in her hands.

"I told you to call mom three days ago Kara."

Kara just shrugged innocently.

"What did you end up telling Lena?" Alex sighed, rolling her eyes at Kara.

"I said Kara had been staying with you for a few days but that I hadn't seen either of you in the last few days due to work."

"Did she believe you?" Alex asked.

"I don't think so, but then one of the crime scene techs called me away and I just pretended to be busy until she left." Maggie turned to Kara, "I told Lena that I'd get you to call her if I saw you."

Maggie waited for some kind of response from Kara but instead Kara was staring off into the distance, nails digging into her own arm.

"Kara?"

"Yeah?" Kara blinked rapidly and turned to face Maggie.

"Did you hear what I said?"

"Yeah."

"And you're going to phone Lena?"

"Yeah."

"Now?" Maggie probed.

"Right now?" Kara frowned and looked at Alex, searching for some kind of excuse.

"Please? I cannot take another day of her following me around and mithering me. Plus, I don't even want to think of what she would uncover with all the resources at her disposal if she thinks you're missing."

Maggie ran her hand through her hair and then stood up, pushing down on Alex's knee to help her stand, eliciting a groan from Alex.

"I'm going to go and find some food. Are you coming?"

"Yeah sure," Alex shrugged, taking the hand Maggie offered and used it to pull herself up.

"You should call mom while you are at it. Tell her J'onn was covering because you were needed elsewhere. Remember to be vague, no elaborate details," Alex told her.

"Lying is not her strong point," she muttered to Maggie as the couple left the room, leaving Kara alone with her phone.

"Maybe she should tell the truth then."


	23. Chapter 23

"So, were your blood tests okay?" Maggie asked as she joined Alex at the table with two cups of coffee.

"What?" Alex was miles away.

"Those tests you were doing. Is everything alright?"

"I guess."

"You don't sound so sure."

Alex took a sip from the cup and eyed Maggie.

"There was nothing really abnormal but the drug I tested is still detectable in my system."

"But you've not taken the drug recently."

Alex shrugged, "My kidneys don't seem to be excreting it as fast as I would have thought they would have been able to."

"Has it damaged your kidneys?" Maggie put her coffee down to focus fully on Alex.

"The bloods suggest there may be some damage but I'm not overly concerned, it's reversible."

"What are you going to do?" Maggie was concerned by how dismissive Alex sounded.

"I'm not sure yet."

"Maybe you should go and see your doctor."

Alex frowned but didn't reply instead choosing to pick at the plastic lid of her coffee cup.

"Or speak to one of the doctors at the DEO," Maggie offered.

"I'll be fine."

"Alex…"

"What would I even tell them?" Alex finally looked up at Maggie.

Maggie didn't really have an answer and she too began to fidget with her cup.

"Are you feeling any better?"

"I still just feel sick, the anti-sickness tablets I'm taking are helping but the nausea is always there."

Maggie took a sip of coffee and watched Alex in silence for a minute.

"So, whilst I was at Kara's apartment today I was thinking that we should decorate it for her."

Alex didn't answer, just continued to sip her coffee at the little table they were waiting for their food order at.

"Nothing fancy, just some actual paint on the walls would be a start. Maybe put some of her paintings on the wall and try to get rid of the carpet that's covered in her blood, or at least buy her a rug to cover it."

Alex frowned slightly at the comment but still didn't reply.

"You still want her to move in with you, don't you?" Maggie asked after some more silence from Alex.

Alex shrugged half-heartedly.

"Have you asked Kara what she wants?"

"Not yet."

"You only have one bedroom and one bed."

"We can share or I don't mind the couch."

"Forever?"

"Of course not, just until she's back on her feet."

"Alex…"

"I just need her to be safe. To know where she is, that she's sleeping and eating and healthy. I want her to live in a good neighbourhood, in an apartment that isn't falling apart. She does so much for this city, she deserves better."

"I know, but Kara's an adult. She lost her job, she's just living within her means until she can get herself back on track. That's just what people have to do sometimes. Luckily she doesn't have to worry about the same things that other people do when they live in that area."

"She's not indestructible, she can still get hurt," Alex's voice faltered.

"I've seen that for myself."

"Someone could break in, find out who she is and use that information as leverage or sell it to the highest bidder."

Maggie leaned back in her chair and sighed, Alex was clearly spiralling, her deep-rooted worries spilling out.

"You think I'm being stupid?" Alex asked.

"Nope," Maggie sat up straight again and took Alex's hands in hers, "I think that the DEO will probably fork out the money for a security door to protect their best asset."

"I'd rather she wasn't living there."

"I know, and I think it's fine for her to stay with you for a couple of days once you discharge her from the DEO, but I think that realistically, you two living together is not going to work."

Alex chewed her lip as she let go of Maggie's hands and began to gently rock her nearly empty coffee, swirling the dregs of the drink around the cup rhythmically.

"Before we even start painting that whole apartment needs a deep cleaning," Alex mumbled eventually. "Do you think J'onn would let me use the DEO clean up team?"

Maggie laughed, "I think he would do anything he could to help you or Kara out," she told her as their order was called.

They both stood up and Maggie took the bag from the cashier and thanked him before heading out into the night towards the DEO, arm linked with Alex's.

* * *

"What are you two muttering about over there?" Kara called to the far end of the medical bay where Alex and Maggie were hunched around one of the computers.

Kara had been sulking ever since Alex and Maggie had returned with food and insisted that she tell them what she had told Eliza and Lena on the phone. Kara hadn't reacted well to the interrogation and told them it was none of their business and that she didn't want any of the food before lying back on the bed. Since then, the pair had been on the computer as far away from Kara as possible. The screen was facing away from Kara so she couldn't see what they were looking at, but every so often Maggie would point at something and Alex would shake her head or pull her face.

"You'd know if you took those things out of your ears." Maggie called back, the look of regret on her face appeared instantly, as if she thought she had crossed a line and it wasn't her place to say.

Alex, who had been watching the exchange uncertainly, turned back to the computer and pretended she was entranced on whatever was on the screen.

Kara's head didn't move but her eyes dropped to her lap.

"Sorry," Kara squirmed eventually, but she still didn't move to remove the ear plugs, instead she curled up on her side and pulled the blanket that had been over her feet right up to her chin.

"I'll try harder tomorrow," she mumbled quietly, unsure if they would be able to hear her.

* * *

Kara anxiously flicked through the news app on her phone looking for alien related stories. Her eyes roved over the pages but her brain wasn't really processing the information. Everything was still fuzzy, her brain struggling even though her body was nearly completely healed.

Alone in the medical bay she felt loneliness creep in.

Alex had been to see her first thing that morning before she started work and she had spoken to both Maggie and Lena on the phone but she still felt isolated. Maggie had only been checking that she had heeded her lecture about answering her phone, the conversation with Lena on the other hand had been harder to manage as she had only seemed to be calling to pick holes in Kara's story from the previous night about her disappearance and Kara's fuzzy brain couldn't keep up with her own lies.

Kara had ended the conversation abruptly and had thrown her phone across the bay onto the sofa in frustration. Since that burst of anger, the very young looking medical tech had been avoiding coming anywhere near her. She didn't blame him, she had developed a reputation for breaking people's arms, first Alex's and now Winn's.

Her gaze slipped to the window and she watched a group of agents heading past, suited up ready to go out on a mission. J'onn led the team, stalking past the window and shouting orders along the way. Alex wasn't amongst the group.

Kara took out her ear plugs to try to hear what was going on and where they were going. She'd been attempting to sort her hearing out in short bursts all morning like she had promised she would.

"And this time don't leave your comm line open Agent Chase," she heard J'onn chastising before the surrounding noises seeped into her ears, overwhelming her and she was forced to put her ear plugs back in.

Just seeing the agents in full tactical gear had made her antsy. Part of her was itching to get back to being Supergirl but another part of her was dreading even leaving the DEO.

Kara shook her head to clear the negative thoughts and then shuffled to the end of her bed. The floor was cold under her bare feet. She had a quick look around for some shoes but was interrupted by the young tech.

"Can I help you Supergirl?" he stuttered.

"No, thanks." Kara began to make her way barefooted to the door but found the tech blocking her way.

"Is there a problem?" Kara asked him, trying to move around him to the door.

"No ma'am, it's just…"

"Hey Kara." Alex magically appeared behind the tech in the doorway, still wearing her lab coat and Kara thought that it was probably a coincidence - until it happened again two hours later.

This time Alex was dressed in her training gear.

"What's going on?" Alex sounded slightly out of breath.

"I was just…" Kara began to move to the door, trying to look past Alex into the corridor. Alex took her by the arm and led her back to the sunbed.

"Alex, are you spying on me?"

"What?" The question seemed to catch her sister off guard and for a second Kara thought she was going to get the truth but then she saw Alex shift into agent mode. "What makes you think that?"

"Because both times I've tried to leave this afternoon you've appeared and stopped me."

"Where were you going?" Alex looked her up and down and raised her eyebrow.

Kara scowled but then looked down at herself. She still hadn't found anything to put on her feet and she was only wearing pyjama shorts and a vest top. Whilst her outfit was ideal for maximum sunlamp exposure, it was not for the best for wandering around a secret government organisation.

"I just want to get out of here, I'm fed up."

Alex looked at her again and Kara put on the most pathetic face she could muster.

"How's your hearing?"

Kara shrugged, slightly annoyed that Alex had no answers, only questions.

Alex sighed and looked around the medical bay. She then picked up the bag from next to the bed and began rummaging through it.

"Put these on," she threw some sweatpants and a hoodie at Kara who stumbled to catch them.

"Just testing your reflexes," Alex quipped before Kara could complain.

Kara held onto the bed as she stepped into the pants and then shrugged on the hoodie. By the time she was done, Alex was kneeling on the floor, ready to help her put on her shoes. Kara rolled her eyes but accepted her help.

"Ready?"

Kara nodded and took the lead, waving off Alex's attempt to take her arm as she set off down the corridor, limping slightly. Her leg was a lot less painful and her whole body felt better as soon as she started to walk down the corridor, a little unsure of where she was heading.

Alex held back nervously until they got to the elevator, reaching for the button at the same time Kara did.

Kara hit the call button and leant against the wall, she felt exhausted already.

"Are you okay?"

"Yep," Kara nodded, maybe a little too enthusiastically, but was saved from further discussion by the elevator door opening. She began to hobble into the empty elevator, heading for the far corner. The floor wobbled as she stepped on it and she suddenly changed her mind, spinning on the spot and heading back out of the elevator and safely onto the concourse.

Kara walked further down the hallway until she reached the railings overlooking the command centre. Kara stood and leant on the railings, watching the agents working down below. Now she was finally out of the medical bay she didn't know what to do with herself, especially not with Alex glued to her side.

She leant over the edge further, watching everyone working. She was of no use to them.

"Why aren't you down there helping them?" Kara turned to her sister violently. Alex jumped, thinking she was going to have to catch her. Both women felt sick with the motion.

"Alex?" Kara pressed, leaning back against the railings.

"I just need to make sure you are okay."

"Alex, your team need you too," Kara adjusted her ear plug and turned back to watch the team of agents.

Alex watched wordlessly as Kara's grip on the railings got tighter and tighter until the metal began to give way under her fingers, clearly struggling under the new sounds. Kara resisted turning the dial back on the ear plug and listened to the conversation taking place over the comm.

Whatever the mission was, it was clearly wrapping up as J'onn was ordering that they prepare a holding cell for an alien. A familiar voice confirmed the order over the comm from the command centre below and Kara leant over the railings to get a better look.

"Is that Winn?" She asked as Alex pulled on her hoodie, worried she was going to fall over the edge.

Winn was tucked away in the corner, relegated from his usual computer at the centre console.

Kara pulled away from Alex's grip and headed to the stairs, her vision inexplicably wavered as she saw the stairs spilling out in front of her but she pushed through, reluctantly accepting the arm Alex offered to her and clinging on to the banister to guide her.

Halfway down, where the stairs turned a corner and met the entrance to the balcony, Kara changed her mind again and turned back, only for Alex to walk right into her. Alex stumbled back, holding her sore face with one hand and grabbing the banister with the other. Kara found herself stuck on the small landing, nothing but stairs or the balcony to escape through. She could probably fly if she jumped, she really didn't want to face Winn. Just as leaping from the balcony became the most plausible option in her head, Alex gently placed a hand on the small of her back and pushed her to the next set of stairs.

Her progress through the command centre attracted attention and Alex drew herself closer, glaring at every agent that dared to look at her sister for more than a second until they turned away and got back to work.

Kara froze again as they got closer to Winn, who was still typing away one-handedly on the keyboard.

"Okay, all clear," Winn told the team before pulling out his ear piece and spinning on his chair.

Winn jumped to his feet as soon as he saw Kara but Kara mistook the movement for fear and stumbled as she turned to run away, only Alex kept her upright.

"Are you alright? What are you doing here? Should you be out of bed?" Winn reeled off as he awkwardly stood at her side.

Kara flinched away from his touch and so Winn pulled out a chair for her and Alex helped Kara to sit down.

"Does it hurt?" Kara finally managed.

"Not really," Winn told her as he sat next to her, "Your sister hooked me up with the good stuff," he joked.

"Are you sure you shouldn't be at home resting?" Kara couldn't take her eyes off the cast on his arm.

"I was getting fed up."

"Yeah, I know the feeling."

"And anyway, I'm still faster than the rest of these guys even with this on," Winn whispered, raising his injured arm slightly.

Kara tweaked her glasses and smiled back before fiddling with the string on her hoodie.

"I'm really sorry about your arm."

"Kara it's fine, it was an accident."

"No, it was completely my fault, Alex told me not to get out of bed but I just wanted to…" Kara was cut off when Winn wheeled his chair right next to hers and put his good arm around her in his usual awkward fashion.

Kara closed her eyes and let herself relax into his embrace, comforted by the familiarity. She could sense Alex's tension though and opened her eyes but as she did the static noise from the communication system seemed to penetrate her skull through her ears, seeping into her already aching brain. She tried to concentrate on blocking it out but then the noise of the entire command centre came crashing down on her. She reached to the ear plugs with shaky hands but could only fumble, she couldn't grasp the small dial. Panic began to rise in her chest until Alex reached to her ears and adjusted the ear plugs so that they blocked out nearly everything, in fact, she could barely hear what Alex and Winn were saying. Alex seemed to realise and held her arm and gestured in the direction of the elevator. Kara nodded slightly then abruptly stood up, causing the wheelie chair to shoot off behind her and Winn to jump nervously the other way. Alex stayed close, moving in to support Kara if needed.

Kara managed to limp without incident to the elevator, managing to wait until the doors shut until collapsing against the wall. She had to use all her will to prevent herself from sliding down the wall to the floor but she wasn't strong enough to stop the cry of pain and despair falling from her lips. As they reached their destination she wobbled into her sister's arms and let her lead her back to her sun bed prison.


	24. Chapter 24

The spring sun was bright, harsh beams of sunlight dazzled her through the well-spaced windows that covered the bright white walls of the admin area of the DEO. The corridors were quiet here and so Kara didn't have to worry about interfering agents as she looked for her sister.

She had been struggling to find Alex, her sister had been elusive for the last 24 hours, she had text her goodnight last night but other than that she had seemingly disappeared. She wasn't in her lab, the training area or even the command centre where the team were planning to raid a possible Cadmus base.

The ear plugs that Kara had been using as a safety blanket were still in her ears, but they were turned off. She was listening for Alex amongst the hubbub of the entire DEO and having to contend with the sound dampening technology and the lead that lined the walls of random areas on the building.

Her hand grazed the wall to aid her slow progress through the corridor until she got to a restricted area of the floor. She tentatively placed her finger on the scanner sticking out from the wall next to the door, relieved when it acknowledged her and lit up green, granting her access through the doorway.

She had never been to this part of the building and she felt the atmosphere change as she crossed the threshold. The light and airy feeling of the previous corridor was replaced by the dark and oppressive energy that accompanied the dull grey concrete walls and metal doors.

Raised voices filtered into her ears and then a dull thud, so deep she thought she could feel the vibrations through the floor with her feet. She carefully proceeded towards the noise to investigate until she heard Alex whimper in pain, causing all rational thought to leave her brain and be replaced by pure adrenaline. If the door had been made of anything less solid than the reinforced steel that adorned most of the DEO, then it would have been obliterated under the strength that Kara had mustered to force it open.

At the far end of the room Alex was pinned to the wall by a man who Kara didn't recognise. He was tall and broad and loomed over her sister. He didn't flinch from the noise of the door cracking and falling from its hinges but Alex did and it cost her her concentration. The man lifted her by her t-shirt so that her feet were no longer on the floor.

Without a second thought, Kara launched herself across the room and pushed the man off Alex and pinned him to the opposite wall, mimicking the position he had had Alex in.

"Who are you?" Kara shouted as she pushed against him, causing his head to bounce off the wall. "What do you want?" her voice cracked with the strain.

"Supergirl, stand down," Alex ordered from the floor where she had fallen when Kara had tackled the man.

Kara loosened her grip in confusion but didn't let go of the man.

Alex got to her feet and ran to pull Kara off.

"Agent Green, why don't you take a break?" she told the man calmly as she pulled Kara away, "I'll come and get you when I'm ready to continue."

The agent nodded and left the room quickly. As he disappeared down the corridor, Alex released her grip on Kara and went to the bench next to the fallen door to pick up her phone, looking confused as she brought up the video feed of the medical bay.

"I knew you were spying on me," Kara mumbled as she peered over Alex's shoulder at the phone screen, swaying slightly. She felt sick and shaky as the adrenaline wore off.

Alex scowled but gently helped Kara to sit down on the bench anyway.

"I wasn't spying, I was just trying to make sure you stayed in bed and out of trouble. How did you get out of the medical bay anyway? I gave them strict orders to stop you."

"They were busy with someone else, it is not their job to babysit aliens you know," Kara almost spat, repeating part of a conversation she had overheard between the medical team earlier that morning in their office.

"Did you hear someone say that? Who said that?" Alex was getting angry so Kara changed the subject.

"Who was that agent? It sounded like he was hurting you."

"That was one of our new trainees and I was trying to complete one of his combat assessments before you interrupted."

"Shouldn't you be helping with the raid on the potential Cadmus base?"

Alex sat down next to Kara, fighting off her own bout of nausea.

"Actually, J'onn doesn't want me on any operations at the moment."

"Why? What happened?"

"He thinks I'm distracted and he's right, I probably shouldn't be in the field right now."

"Are you alright Alex?"

"Of course," Alex started.

"It's just that you look a little bit pale and you really didn't look on form," Kara placed her hand on Alex's leg.

"I'm tired but my form is fine. I had to let Agent Green pin me so that I could attack from a different position and to see if he let his guard down when he thought he had the advantage – which he didn't – even when interrupted by Supergirl. He's ex-military, he's very good."

Kara smiled and swiped her hand to adjust her glasses before she remembered she wasn't wearing them.

"Are you sure you are alright? Your chest is still a bit red from where you let him pin you," Kara poked at the redness on the visible skin above the collar on Alex's t-shirt.

"I promise, I'm okay. You, on the other hand, are not. Can I please get you back to the sunbed to check your solar levels since you used your powers?"

Kara squirmed under her sister's attention but Alex looked defeated and so she stood up and let Alex lead her to the medical bay. She even allowed Alex to help her to sit on the edge of the sunbed and to reinstate the sensor system that she had disabled to aid her escape earlier.

"Okay, 97%, everything looks fine."

Kara nodded unenthusiastically.

"Do you need anything before I go back to complete that assessment?"

"Nope," Kara confirmed.

"Alright then," Alex pressed a button on the sunbed control panel, "Phone me if you want me," she called, heading to the door.

"Oh, actually, before I forget," Alex turned and walked back to Kara, "Maggie has the afternoon off so after I've finished this assessment and written it up, we're going to go out for a bit, so I won't be around tonight. I think James said he'd be over after work though." Alex stroked her sister's hair and then kissed her head, "Please try to stay under the sun lamps, I know you feel better but they are helping your brain to heal."

Kara nodded and forced a smile as her sister left to go back to putting the agent through his paces.

* * *

The smell of fresh paint was mixing with the lingering chemicals the DEO team had used to clean the apartment and the smell was making her nausea even worse.

"Hey Alex, can you pass me that clean roller?" Maggie's voice was distant, struggling to penetrate the darkness inside her skull.

"Alex?" Apparently, she hadn't responded quickly enough as Maggie was now shouting.

Alex turned from where she was painting a door on the floor to look at her girlfriend. Maggie was balancing precariously on a chair, struggling to paint the top of the wall, even with the extended arm of the paint roller.

"Sorry, what did you say?" Alex asked eventually as she realised Maggie was waiting for something.

"That roller, can you pass it to me please?" Maggie frowned as she pointed at the paint roller in question on the counter top.

"Sure," Alex scrambled to her feet but as she stood up the apartment around her began to look fuzzy, her ears burnt and began to ring as warmth crept up her face.

"Alex?"

Alex clung onto the edge of the counter she had tried to retrieve the paint roller from, desperately fighting to stay upright.

"Alex?"

Maggie didn't manage to get down from the chair quickly enough to catch her girlfriend before she crumpled to the ground.

"Alex?" Maggie shook Alex's shoulder and brushed her hand gently across her pale and sweaty face.

Alex opened her eyes and forced herself into a sitting position as Maggie tried to get her to remain lying down.

"Sorry," Alex mumbled and pulled herself up on the counter.

"Alex, where are you going?"

"I'm going to be sick."

Maggie helped her to the bathroom and Alex made it to the sink before she vomited. Maggie turned the tap on so that it disappeared down the plughole as Alex knelt on the floor over the toilet.

Maggie sat down beside her and rubbed her back as Alex heaved, trying to calm herself down as much as she was trying to sooth Alex. She tried to rationalise but she didn't know whether to call 911 or the DEO.

She pulled out her phone as she continued to rub circles in Alex's back and she scrolled through her contact list only to realise that she did not have J'onn's number.

"Where's your phone Alex?"

"My back pocket, why?" Alex managed in gasps between retches.

Maggie reached into the pocket of Alex's jeans and helped her to lean against the bathtub.

"I'm going to call J'onn."

"No," Alex whimpered, "I'm fine."

"That wasn't very convincing, babe," Maggie told her as she tried to find the number but couldn't get past the lock screen because she didn't know Alex's pin code.

"Alex, what's your pin?" she asked after trying a few combinations.

Alex remained silent, her eyes barely open now as she slumped against the bathtub.

Maggie sighed and went back to scrolling through her own contact list, looking for someone useful. Eventually she got to Winn's name and called him.

"What's up Maggie?" He answered after two rings.

"Please can you have J'onn call me right now, it's an emergency," she ended the call without waiting for Winn's response.

"Alex, please talk to me, I don't know what to do."

Alex's eyes opened and she met Maggie's concerned gaze for a moment. Maggie's phone rang from an unknown number and she fumbled to answer it, almost dropping it on the tiled floor.

"J'onn?"

"Detective Sawyer?"

"Alex is really sick, she's barely conscious, I don't know whether to call an ambulance or bring her to the DEO."

"Where are you?" J'onn was calm and to the point.

"Kara's new apartment."

"I'll be there in a minute, sit tight."

"What should I…" Maggie realised she had been disconnected.

"J'onn's on his way Alex."

"I'm fine," Alex's eyes were still closed as she tried to sit up unaided. "I feel better for being sick."

"Do you want some water?"

Alex nodded and finally opened her eyes properly.

"One second," Maggie ran to the kitchen and filled a glass with water and brought it to Alex, placing it to her lips. Alex drank desperately from the glass until Maggie took it away.

"Take it easy." Maggie sat next to Alex and let her lean on her, pulling her close and stroking her hair.

J'onn appeared in the bathroom, startling Maggie but Alex didn't seem to notice.

"Alex?" J'onn picked a reluctant Alex up in his arms.

"I'll take her to the DEO. I'll be back for you in a minute," he told Maggie as he transformed.

"No, stay with her, I'll drive."

J'onn nodded his head before heading out of the bathroom with Alex.

Maggie watched them leave helplessly. She washed cold water over her face over the sink and then dried herself off, sighing at her reflection in the mirror. She then locked up the apartment and headed to the DEO.


	25. Chapter 25

Maggie ran the now overly familiar route from her car to the medical bay, only slowing down as she reached the entrance to the ward. Trying to compose herself, she peered through the window, standing on her tiptoes to get a better view. She had been expecting a bustling room with medics tending to Alex, but the bay looked calm. Kara was asleep, hovering slightly over her bed under the lamps and J'onn was at the far end of the bay. He was stood with his legs spread and arms folded at the edge of a set of curtains, his back was to Maggie.

Maggie took a deep breath and pushed the door open and then gently closed it behind her. J'onn turned around and waved her over to him before turning back to watch the scene behind the curtain.

Behind the curtain, Alex was on a trolley hunched over a vomit bowl. She was wearing a hospital gown that was open at the back and Dr Kemp was listening to her chest with a stethoscope as she reluctantly followed his instructions to breathe in and then out. She had a cannula in each hand, one of which had a half empty bag of fluids attached to it. Alex flinched away as the tech placed a thermometer in her ear.

"Temperature is 97.3, completely normal," they called to the doctor.

"Shhh," Alex moaned as she let the vomit bowl slip from her hand forcing the tech to react quickly to stop the contents from spilling.

Maggie stood next to J'onn and mirrored his firm stance, her arms folded across her chest and her jaw clenched but her eyes gave away her fear, flitting from Alex and then to the medics and the machines around her.

"Okay, chest sounds fine. I think you're right Director," Dr Kemp told J'onn as he made a note on the chart.

"Agent Danvers, I'm just going to feel your abdomen." Dr Kemp gently lifted the hospital gown and undid the button on her jeans. His gloved hands palpated her abdomen. Alex squirmed, holding back a cry of pain as her stomach was poked and prodded.

"Left sided flank pain," Dr Kemp mused out loud.

Maggie continued to watch helplessly as Alex was examined, her eyes kept falling shut only to jump open when more pain was inflicted on her.

"Blood results are up," another tech came into the curtained area, "Creatinine is high, eGFR is low, white cells are normal, but both her sodium and potassium are high."

"Alright, let's get a calcium gluconate infusion and an ultrasound scan. We need chest leads and repeat the ECG after an hour."

Maggie unconsciously moved closer to J'onn for some kind of feeling of security as the female tech placed the stickers discreetly under Alex's gown so that Alex's chest remained covered. The monitor beeped loudly as it started, and Maggie thought she saw J'onn flinch out of the corner of her eye.

"You have to be quiet," Alex managed to mumble as her head fell back onto the bed, "I don't want Kara to hear this."

The tech silenced the monitor and then ducked back out of the curtain and returned with an ultrasound machine with a squeaky wheel. Maggie tore her eyes from Alex as the doctor began to scan Alex's abdomen and turned to check on Kara. She was still on the bed, but she was no longer asleep.

Kara was shaking on the edge of the sunbed watching her sister, the flimsy curtain was no barrier to Kara's x-ray vision, even with teary eyes.

Maggie stepped out of the area and perched herself on the edge of Kara's sunbed next to the superhero.

"Is she okay?" Kara continued to watch her sister being examined through the curtains, "What happened?"

"She collapsed."

"Where? Why?" Kara made to stand up, but Maggie put her arm out to stop her.

"Let the team finish examining her."

Kara placed her head on Maggie's shoulder and relaxed slightly, continuing to watch Alex with her x-ray vision.

"We were just at the apartment and she fainted and then she was sick and collapsed again. I called J'onn because I didn't know what to do."

"You did the right thing getting her here," Kara rubbed Maggie's hand soothingly and Maggie finally felt relaxed.

Maggie listened to the doctor as Kara continued to lean on her shoulder and rub her hand softly. Both women tensed as they heard Alex retching again. Kara pulled away from Maggie and began firing off questions.

"She said you guys were going out. Did she eat something weird? Did you go to the bar? Was she drinking?"

"I…" Maggie stumbled over her words. She knew Alex didn't want Kara to find out the truth, but the heat of the sunlamps was beginning to get too much, and she was struggling to think of a plausible lie.

"Detective Sawyer, can we have a word please?" J'onn was suddenly at the foot of the bed, Dr Kemp only a step behind.

"Sure," Maggie shuffled to the edge of the bed and tried to stand up, but Kara had hold of her hand again.

"Is something wrong? I'm her sister, you have to tell me." There was blind panic in Kara's eyes as she gripped Maggie's hand.

"Kara, we just need to go through anything that Alex has been exposed to today," J'onn moved to comfort Kara, helping Maggie to free her hand from the Kryptonian's grip.

"I'll be two minutes," Maggie promised, rubbing her hand to aid the flow of blood back to her fingers.

Maggie followed J'onn and the doctor into the office. J'onn closed the blinds and sat on the edge of one of the desks, crossing his arms after signalling to one of the empty chairs. Maggie took her seat obediently and waited for J'onn's interrogation to begin but it was Dr Kemp who started.

"Agent Danvers' kidneys have sustained quite a lot of damage, is there anything you can tell us about the medication she was testing?"

"She told you about that?" Maggie frowned as Dr Kemp looked uncertainly at the Director.

"You read her mind?" Maggie turned to look at J'onn.

J'onn nodded, "She didn't really give me much choice," he told her defensively, sensing her judgment.

"Did she tell you anything?" Dr Kemp prompted again.

"Not really," Maggie shrugged and leant back in the chair, "The only reason I even know that she was testing it on herself is because I caught her doing it. Have you checked her lab?"

"Yes, but we didn't find anything more than a couple of notes and doodles."

Maggie felt useless, especially as she knew that Kara was probably listening right now.

"Actually," Maggie leant forward, "Alex told me that she had based the drug off an antibiotic, she thought that that is why Kara is struggling with her hearing so much. One of the side effects of the antibiotic was hearing loss."

"Had Alex experienced any hearing loss?"

"I'm not sure, she only mentioned feeling sick and that she was taking some medication for it and that it was helping. I didn't notice anything, but she wouldn't really talk about it, she was more concerned about Kara's recovery."

J'onn and the doctor nodded knowingly.

"Will she need dialysis?" Maggie asked.

"Hopefully not, that would be a last resort. The kidney problem seems to be exasperated by dehydration, lack of sleep and general lack of self-care. For now, I'm just treating her with some fluids with some electrolytes in to get her bloods in normal range and to ensure she's adequately hydrated."

"I tried to get her to take care of herself," Maggie bowed her head.

"No one doubts that Detective Sawyer, Alex is stubborn," J'onn got to his feet and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, "Come on," he gestured to the door and then held it open for her.

Maggie went to check on Alex, she felt Kara's eyes burning into her as she walked past, but she kept her eyes to the floor until she pushed through the curtains.

Alex's eyes were closed. There were wires and lines everywhere and Maggie carefully took Alex's hand and sat next to the bed, watching her chest rise and fall steadily.

The sunbed alarm on Alex's phone began to sound, bringing with it Kara. Alex didn't stir as Kara sat down on the other side of her bed and took her hand, eyes fixed on Alex's pale face.

"You heard everything didn't you?" Maggie fumbled in her jacket to find Alex's phone.

Kara nodded tearfully.

"None of this is your fault, Kara." Maggie told her as she managed to silence Alex's phone and put it on the table at the end of the bed.

"It kind of is though," Kara told her firmly, not looking away from her sister.

"Kara…"

"Don't." Kara stood up, took Alex's phone and turned it off before limping away.

After a minute of silence, Maggie twitched the curtain to make sure Kara had gone back to bed. She had. She was curled up on the sunbed but had turned the lamps off, or rather she had used her heat vision to destroy the switch, the console was still smoking from the insult.

Maggie faltered, still holding the curtain, she didn't know how to comfort Kara, so she took her seat back at Alex's bedside and rested her head on the bed.

She didn't need super hearing to hear Kara sobbing.

* * *

Kara listened closely to her sister's heartbeat. Every so often, if her concentration slipped, she could hear Maggie's heartbeat as well. It was beating fast, almost twice as fast as Alex's. Through the curtain she watched Maggie fidgeting nervously, changing her position on the chair every few minutes and intermittently pacing the bed area. Eventually she seemed to settle down and she pushed the chair up to the bed so that she could rest her head next to Alex's.

Kara kept watch with her x-ray vision long after Maggie's heart rate and breathing pattern suggested that she had fallen asleep. The constant use of her powers felt draining, but she was unable to stop and try and get some rest until she knew for sure that Alex was going to be alright. Dr Kemp went to check on Alex every half an hour and Kara wished he would try to be quieter, but even with the clumsy banging of equipment the pair remained asleep.

It was almost morning when Alex began to stir.

"Mags?" Kara watched as Alex woke Maggie up.

"Hey." Maggie finally found the energy to lift her head from the bed, groaning tiredly as she looked at Alex.

"Where are we?"

"The DEO."

Alex sat up straight, attempting to swing her legs over the bed. Kara did the same at the other end of the bay, ready to stop her sister from leaving but Maggie managed to gently halt Alex's progress and carefully nudged her legs back onto the bed.

"Kara?" Alex asked as Maggie readjusted the blanket covering her.

"She knows you're here."

"Does she know about…?"

"Yeah, she overheard."

"How could you let that happen?" Alex's whisper was harsh.

Kara could tell Alex was about to start an argument, but instead of moving to try to calm her down and give her some reassurance, she sat frozen on her bed, unable to find her voice.

"She has super hearing, what was I supposed to do?" Maggie's voice was strained. "You were barely conscious, and the doctor needed information."

Kara could feel the tension from across the bay and curled up on the bed but continued to watch through the curtain.

"There are places where she can't hear." Alex was getting wound up.

"Alex…"

"You had no right to."

Kara could see Alex was now messing with the cannula in her hand.

"That's not what happened, I wasn't the one who brought it up, J'onn was." Maggie took Alex's hands to stop her messing with her infusion.

"How did he even know?"

"He read your mind whilst you were unconscious."

"What?" Alex forgot she was supposed to be keeping her voice down for a second.

"He needed to know what was wrong with you," Maggie sounded on the verge of tears and let go of Alex's hands.

"Maggie…" Alex started softly.

"I thought you were dying," she whispered.

A second later the curtains snapped open and Maggie rushed through the medical bay as she pulled on her jacket. It wasn't until the doors shut behind her that Kara heard Maggie begin to cry.


	26. Chapter 26

Maggie stayed locked in the bathroom stall until she had managed to calm herself down. She blew her nose and then unlocked the door, cringing as she caught a glimpse of her broken reflection in the mirrors that adorned the wall. She did her best to get rid of her puffy eyes and tear stained cheeks at the sink before she left the bathroom, a little unsure of where she was heading. J'onn was waiting for her.

She fought the urge to turn around and lock herself back in the toilet stall. Not that she thought it would keep J'onn out, after all he could walk through the wall and Maggie doubted the fact it was the female bathroom would stop him.

"Detective Sawyer, should we walk?"

Maggie didn't really think it was a question or that she could refuse and so let him lead her through the deserted DEO, her short legs struggling to keep up with his long strides.

He led her into a room, the name plaque on the door was the only indication that it was his office.

J'onn took a seat behind the desk and signalled for Maggie to take a seat opposite. Maggie looked awkwardly around before sitting down, feeling like she was back at school in the principal's office until J'onn pulled out a bottle of alcohol and poured her a small glass of the vaguely blue liquid.

"Alien?"

J'onn nodded, "But safe for humans."

Maggie searched J'onn for a sign that it was a test but seeing nothing but genuine concern in his face she threw the alcohol down her throat, wincing slightly as it caught the back of her throat.

"It has been a rough few weeks." J'onn mused as Maggie let herself relax back into the chair.

Maggie nodded, unsure of where the conversation was heading.

"Thank you for all the support you have given Alex – and Kara."

"Not that its helped much," Maggie mumbled, still feeling sorry for herself.

J'onn let her wallow in self-pity for a minute.

"Whatever Alex said to upset you, she didn't mean it."

"Why don't you read my mind and see for yourself?" Maggie didn't mean to sound so harsh but J'onn didn't even flinch at the bite in her voice.

"I don't routinely go around delving into the minds of others, Detective."

Maggie cringed as J'onn remained calm and concerned, part of her was itching for an argument.

"She's blaming me for Kara overhearing that she tested that drug on herself."

"It sounds like she's more upset with herself and probably me than she is with you."

"I know," Maggie sniffed, "I don't know why I let myself get so upset."

"Because you are tired and you have been spending way too much time here at the DEO worrying about Alex and Kara," J'onn reminded her as he poured her another drink and then one for himself. "I know the feeling well."

The pair sat in silence for a minute.

"I have a lot of respect for you Detective, as a police officer and a person. You are excellent at your job and since Alex has met you she has been the happiest I have ever seen her. I'm glad she found you."

Maggie took a sip of the alcohol, unsure of how to respond.

"I'm sorry you took the brunt of her anger tonight, it's usually me on the receiving end, especially when it concerns Kara."

Maggie placed her glass back on the desk.

"Do you think she will be okay?"

"Doctor Kemp thinks she'll be fine in a few days, as long as she follows his instructions."

Maggie doubted Alex was actually capable of following another doctor's orders but kept it to herself and nodded gently.

"Can I ask you something Detective Sawyer?"

"You can call me Maggie."

"That wasn't what I was going to ask you."

"I know, but please call me Maggie."

J'onn nodded, "How do you think Kara is getting on?"

Maggie took a second to consider her answer.

"Not great," was all she managed as she struggled to articulate the depth of how not great Kara was.

"I mean, she's better physically, almost completely healed and back to strength but mentally," Maggie paused, "Have you not seen her yourself?" Maggie asked.

"Every chance I get I go to see her but we haven't really been able to talk, Alex gets very protective when I broach anything more than the weather with Kara."

"She's too overprotective," Maggie agreed, "But it's understandable because Kara seems so fragile. There was already some distance between Kara and her support system and now she is wracked with guilt about Winn's arm and she's probably blaming herself for Alex being sick."

J'onn nodded in agreement and Maggie drank down the rest of the glass and stood up.

"I should go back and check on Alex."

* * *

Kara was dragged from her dreams by someone wrapping something around her arm. She blindly tried to fight them for a moment but then she remembered where she was and opened her eyes reluctantly to find Alex struggling to apply a blood pressure cuff to her arm.

Kara shut her eyes and tried to curl up only for her brain to catch up to her eyes and realise what she had just seen.

"Alex?" she sat up quickly and turned her ear plugs off, the movement almost knocking Alex off balance. "Should you be out of bed?" she asked, studying her sister. She was still attached to a bag of fluids on the stand behind her but she looked better than she had for a few days.

"I'm going to have to take some blood," Alex told her, examining both Kara's forearms for veins.

Kara snatched her arm away from her sister's grip and ripped the blood pressure cuff from her arm.

"Where's Maggie?" Kara's eyes scanned the medical bay. She had allowed herself to finally close her eyes when Maggie had returned to talk to Alex after their argument in the early hours. She had turned the ear plugs right up to give them some privacy and the deafening silence plus the exhaustion from the constant use of her x-ray vision had meant that sleep had come easily.

"Did you apologise to her?"

Alex ignored her and awkwardly brought over the ultrasound machine, dragging her IV pole with one hand and the machine with her other.

Kara stood up on shaky legs and limped towards the bathroom away from Alex.

"Where are you going?"

"I've just been woken up, I need to go to the bathroom before I deal with whatever the hell is going on with you."

Alex caught her arm to stop her.

"It's best if you have a full bladder for your ultrasound scan."

"It doesn't matter because you are not giving me a scan, you need to get back in bed," Kara told her firmly as she let the bathroom door slam and locked the door behind her, desperate for some privacy.

By the time she re-emerged, Alex was sat on a chair beside the sunbed surrounded by an assortment of equipment, patiently waiting for her return. Kara scraped her hair back into a ponytail and searched the area around her bed for the glasses she had discarded last night, ignoring Alex for as long as she could. She flung herself on the couch and pushed the glasses up her nose as she started to flick through the news on her phone.

"Would you not be better getting in bed?" Alex asked.

"Would you not be better getting in _your_ bed?" Kara didn't look up from her phone.

She knew she was behaving like a teenager but then again Alex wasn't exactly being rational either. Her finger swiped through a couple of articles trying to ignore Alex who was fidgeting nervously in her chair.

"Are you feeling any better?" Kara finally broke the silence, knowing that Alex would never do it.

"Yeah."

"Really?" Kara looked up from her phone and raised an eyebrow towards her sister.

"Yes," Alex insisted, "And my bloods this morning had improved."

"Have you been sick again?"

"No."

"You still look a little pale," Kara worried.

"You don't look so great yourself."

Alex's voice was sharp and defensive and Kara felt the sting of her words in her chest. She dug herself further into the corner of the sofa, trying to make herself smaller as Alex's words began to bounce around her brain and the whole world became an echo. She had lost control of her hearing again.

"Kara?"

Her name seemed to resonate off every wall in the room before Kara realised she was being addressed.

"What?" Kara whispered, searching the room for who was speaking.

"I said I was sorry."

Her eyes finally found Alex again and her sister looked as confused as Kara felt. She looked around the room again before speaking.

"So, are your lungs better?" Kara found herself still whispering.

Alex looked confused still, "You mean my kidneys?"

"Yeah, that's what I said."

"You said lungs."

Kara took another look around the room, hesitating as a glint of light from the corridor caught her eye.

"Well are they okay?" Kara stuttered.

"Yes, my kidney function has improved."

"Will there be any long-term damage?"

"There shouldn't be," a deep voice was now buzzing in her ears and again she struggled to find the source of the words. The voice seemed to be everywhere and nowhere all at once.

"As long as Agent Danvers follows her treatment plan then I don't envisage any long-term problems." Dr Kemp was now stood next to Alex reading from a chart.

"Is she allowed to be out of bed?" Kara asked the doctor.

Dr Kemp glanced at Alex who was glaring at him.

"Yes, she can wander the whole medical bay if she wants, we wouldn't want her to get a chest infection or DVT. In fact, after that bag of fluids is finished we'll take some more bloods and then she should be okay to go home."

Alex was nodding her head in agreement and Kara had to wonder if Alex had coerced the doctor in some way.

"What's the hold up with those tests?" Dr Kemp turned back to Alex.

"We're just getting around to them," Alex reassured him as she pointed to the equipment.

"I can do the tests if you would prefer Kara."

Kara looked up to the doctor and realised both he and Alex were staring at her.

"No, it's fine," she mumbled, she didn't really want to be subject to any more tests but it didn't seem like she had much of a choice.

"Good, we'll go through the results together Agent Danvers."

Alex nodded to Dr Kemp as he exited and then stood up and began pushing buttons on the ultrasound machine.

"Come on, sit on the bed, let's get this over with," Kara took a look around the bay before complying with Alex's orders.

"What was that about?" Kara asked as Alex drew the dividers around the bed to give her some privacy.

"Well since I'm not fit for duty at the moment, technically I can't be your doctor. J'onn's orders are for Dr Kemp to oversee your care."

"You shouldn't have done it you know." Kara rested her head on the bed, fighting the urge to shut her eyes.

"I did what I had to do to keep you alive." Alex carefully lifted Kara's t-shirt up, she then began shaking a plastic bottle but became distracted when she caught sight of the singed control panel on the sun bed.

"What happened to the sunbed controls?" Alex leaned in to get a better look at the damage.

"Did you use your heat vision on this?" Alex poked at the device and then rubbed the soot between her fingers. She then reached over to the remote control that was resting on the table and pushed a series of buttons that resulted in the sun lamps kicking into life.

"Good, no real damage done," she muttered as she turned back to the ultrasound machine.

"You're probably better off turning your earplugs on," Alex told Kara as she squirted the gel onto Kara's stomach.

Kara grimaced as the cold gel hit her stomach but reached up to her ears and did as she was advised. She couldn't hear a thing so she shut her eyes and put her arm across her face to shield from the light. The movement of her body plus the pressure Alex was applying to her abdomen with the probe made her feel sick and light headed, she felt as though the world had started spinning the wrong way.

 _And then she was falling and so was Alex, both of them heading straight for the ocean below. Kara threw out her arm to try to reach Alex but she was too far away, her sister's eyes were full of disappointment and fear. Kara tried to call out to her but no words left her mouth. A figure zoomed past Kara and grabbed Alex around the waist. It was Maggie and she was wearing Kara's red cape. Alex continued to fall for another second until Maggie gained control and pulled them upwards and flew them to safety, leaving Kara heading straight for the water alone._

Alex was shaking her and removed the plugs from her ears.

"Did you use your powers for more than turning off the sun bed last night?"

Kara felt disorientated. Alex was cleaning the ultrasound gel from her skin but the light was hurting her eyes and the heartbeats of everyone in the vicinity were encroaching on her brain.

A couple of deep breaths allowed her concentration to return and she focused on the drone of the sunlamps, the constant hum soothed her overstimulated senses until a weird blue glow seeped through her closed eyes.

Compelled to open her eyes, Kara groaned and sat up, only for Alex to push her back down again.

"I said keep still."

"What are you doing?" Kara whispered.

"Have you even been listening to me?" Alex continued to wave the blue light source over her.

Kara must have looked blank because Alex took pity on her and repeated herself.

"Your solar radiation levels have fallen to 86%."

"Probably because I spent all night using my x-ray vision watching you through the curtain and using my hearing to make sure your heart was beating." Kara mumbled as she sat up again to retrieve the ear plugs Alex had removed, ignoring her sister's plea for her to stay still.

She felt agitated and she didn't know why.

"I want to go home," she decided suddenly, jumping off the bed and wobbling to the door.

"Kara, wait." Alex caught up to her easily even though she had to pull her drip stand along with her.

"I'm coming with you."

Kara faltered, she had a feeling it was a trap or some kind of test but then Alex disconnected the bag of fluids from the cannula in her hand and began rooting around a draw for something.

"What are you doing?" Kara limped over to her sister who had now begun to pick at the dressing on one of her cannulas.

"They don't like it if you leave with cannulas in."

Kara grabbed Alex's hand to keep it away from the cannula.

"You can't leave, Dr Kemp said you needed to finish that bag of fluids and have another blood test."

"I'm not letting you go home alone," Alex tried to pull out of Kara's grasp.

"I just want some fresh air."

"We could go out to the courtyard later."

"I want air not tainted by the DEO." Kara screwed up her face. If Alex was going to play her then she was going to get something out of it as well.

"We could go for a walk later, just to the park across the street?" Alex suggested after some deliberation.

Kara smiled.

"But I've got two conditions."

Kara nodded sceptically.

"One, you have to let me try to take some blood samples from you, I need to make sure what happened to me isn't happening to you."

"Okay…" Kara frowned.

"Two, you let me take you to see the rehab therapist."

Kara was scowling now.

"Like a councillor?"

"Nope, although that probably wouldn't be a bad idea. Its someone that helps with rehabilitation after injuries."

"Oh."

"She might be able to help you with your concentration and controlling your powers."

"Do you not think it's temporary?" Kara could feel the panic rising in her chest.

"I don't know and we won't really know until your brain is healed and your invulnerability returns. In the meantime, I think you should try."

Kara nodded again.

"I'll call Sarah, see if she's got time this afternoon."

* * *

Alex had only been on her own for an hour. Kara had refused to let Alex sit in on her session with the therapist and so she had pushed her drip stand back down the corridor and had sat wallowing on her own, haunted by the fact that she had left Kara on her own in the medical bay for so much time whilst she had been destroying her kidneys in her lab.

Eventually the nausea that she had been suppressing in Kara's company all morning fought its way to the surface and Alex spent a good ten minutes hunched over the toilet, scared to move away as every movement she made seemed to trigger another bout of sickness. When the feeling finally passed, Alex cleaned herself up and set about keeping herself busy until Kara's return.

Since then she had triple checked Kara's blood results, reviewed her own chart and was now mindlessly restocking and reorganising. She was sat on the couch sorting through the emergency grab bag specifically designed for Supergirl related emergencies.

She got to the hidden compartment in the bag that held the lead box with various needles all laced with medical grade kryptonite. She pulled the box out and examined it. The seal wasn't broken but it looked like someone had pulled at it slightly and so Alex removed it to check the contents. Everything looked intact. Five needles, five cannulas and 2 ampules of liquid kryptonite all still in place. Alex wrote out a new seal and resealed the box. As she repacked the bag she let her worries creep over her, her eyes kept gliding back to Kara's empty bed.

She discarded the medical bag and dragged her drip stand with her to Kara's bed, picking up the two bags she had at her bedside and throwing them onto the bed. Every item of clothing was searched as Alex rummaged through the bags until they were completely empty and Kara's clothes were strewn across the bed.

"What are you doing?" Maggie's voice startled her but Alex didn't stop searching the lining of each bag.

"Alex?" Maggie asked again as she began to help Alex who was now refolding Kara's clothes and putting them back in the bags.

Alex continued to ignore her and put the bags back on the floor and began to strip the sheets off Kara's bed, sighing with relief as she emptied the last pillow from its case, all she had uncovered was a stray pen lid.

"What the hell was that about?" Maggie asked as Alex took a step back from the bed and ran a hand through her hair.

"Can you help me straighten the sheets?" Alex asked as she began to try to undo the damage she had just caused to the bed.

"Where's Kara?"

"She's having some physical therapy." Alex pulled on the sheets to straighten out the wrinkles.

"What were you looking for?"

"I just thought…" Alex stopped, caught off guard by Maggie's eyes. "It doesn't matter," she mumbled.

"Are you doing okay?" Maggie took Alex's arm and led her to the sofa, helping to pull the drip stand along.

Alex curled up into Maggie's chest and let Maggie stroke her back.

"I'm sorry."

"You don't have to apologise."

"All you've done is support me and all I've done is shout at you. This morning I didn't mean what I said, it wasn't your fault that Kara found out."

"I wouldn't really call that shouting," Maggie was tracing patterns on Alex's back, "That argument we had about those cushions the other day was a lot more heated," Maggie joked.

"Those green ones felt weird," Alex mumbled into Maggie's chest and Maggie chuckled, continuing to stroke her back.

"Is that paint on your jeans?"

Maggie wriggled and leant forward to get a better look at her pants, scratching the fleck of paint free as Alex groaned slightly from the movement.

"Yeah, I called in sick this morning, I've finished painting the walls and doors."

"Really?" Alex looked up at Maggie and smiled.

"Yeah. And James is coming over to help me get rid of that carpet with the blood on it."

Alex tried to relax into her girlfriend's arms but she was worrying about letting Kara leave the DEO.

"What's bothering you Alex?" Maggie asked as Alex began fidgeting.

"I promised Kara that we could try going for a walk outside this afternoon."

"Has Dr Kemp discharged you?"

"No not yet, but there's only about twenty minutes left on this infusion and then he's going to recheck my bloods and if they are okay I am free to leave."

"Will you be cleared for duty?"

"No, J'onn was pretty clear on that. He's not even going to consider it for a few days."

Maggie nodded, trying to hide her relief, "Do you think Kara will be okay outside?"

Alex shrugged and readjusted herself in Maggie's arms, "I think it'll be worse for her if I don't let her try."

"Where are you going to go?"

"Just to the park across the street. Do you want to come as back up?"

"I think maybe you should spend some time on your own with Kara. You two really need to talk."


	27. Chapter 27

The air was fresh and the breeze gentle as Alex led her across the crosswalk. She kept her eyes down so as to not make eye contact with the people on the street and let Alex silently guide her to the small green park area and onto a bench off the main path. Free of the stuffy medical bay and the stifling heat of the sunbed, Kara finally felt like she could breathe. Sure, she was having to cling on to Alex's arm but at least she was free.

Her arm remained linked in Alex's once they were sat on the bench and Kara took her time to enjoy the view of the flowers and trees and the darkening sky spattered with small white clouds. Everything seemed almost normal.

"Should we try to turn them off?" Alex turned to her sister and wriggled her arm free from Kara's.

Kara looked reluctant but removed the earplugs before Alex could reach out and do it for her and put them in her coat pocket.

"Okay?" Alex asked.

Kara nodded but didn't reply.

"How did it go with Sarah?" Alex asked once Kara had finished fiddling.

"She's nice," Kara admitted reluctantly, wringing her hands to try to stop them from shaking.

"Did you find it useful going to see her?" Alex pried.

"Yeah, she gave me some exercises to practice and she said she can see me again tomorrow if I want."

"Do you want to?" Alex probed, sensing Kara's hesitation.

Kara shrugged and continued to look around the park intently, eyes settling on a bird roaming the grass opposite.

"Kara, I'm worried about you," Alex's voice was strained and Kara struggled to stop herself from looking at her sister to try to offer some reassurance.

"I'm sorry," Kara mumbled as she stood up.

"Kara?" Alex called after Kara as she walked away.

Kara stopped walking and turned to meet Alex's eye.

"I don't want to do this anymore."

"Don't want to do what anymore?" Alex grabbed Kara's arm as she tried to walk away again.

"It's too hard," Kara whispered as she fumbled in her pockets for her ear plugs, eyes firmly back on the ground.

"Kara, you're freaking me out. Please just sit down and talk to me." Alex led Kara back to the bench.

Kara pulled the ear plugs from her coat but Alex took them from her.

"You don't need these Kara."

Kara perched herself on the edge of the bench and let out a deep breath, her fingers digging into her knees through her jeans, her whole body shaking anxiously.

Alex tried to scoot closer to her but Kara moved away, trying to keep some space between them. Alex was about to try again when Kara began.

"I don't want to be Supergirl anymore."

The words hung limply in the air whilst Alex struggled to find the words to respond.

"I mean, I just want to go back to how my life used to be," Kara backtracked slightly and dug her fingers even harder into her knees.

Alex grabbed Kara's hands and again tried to move closer. This time Kara didn't move away. Alex waited patiently for Kara to fill the silence with an explanation but she didn't.

"You love being Supergirl," Alex told her firmly, running her fingers over the backs of Kara's hands.

"It makes everything too complicated. No one needs Supergirl," Kara's voice wavered. "In fact, no one needs me at all," her words were barely audible.

"That's not true." Alex pulled Kara into a full hug, "I need you."

"I thought about it a lot in the medical bay," Kara's voice found its strength again.

"Kara, you're still recovering from a head injury not to mention a power draining parasite."

"You're not going to change my mind," Kara tried to pull away from Alex but Alex pulled her closer.

"I just don't want you to rush into a life changing decision Kara, at least talk it through with me."

"Every time I felt my powers draining it felt like such a relief and when I woke up completely without powers in the medical bay everything just seemed easier. If I was just normal so much would be different, everything would be better. I've made a mess of everything, I was fired, I managed to push my best friends away and I…" Kara stuttered and found herself struggling for words, "I felt like I had lost you."

"I'm right here," Alex began to rub Kara's arm and held her as she began to cry, her breathing loud and uneven. "I told you I'm not going anywhere, ever."

Alex soothed her sister until she calmed down, glaring at a member of the public who looked at them as he passed with his dog.

"J'onn is doing fine as Supergirl," Kara brushed the tears from her cheek as Alex clung onto her.

"Do you really think he wants to keep transforming into you?" Alex laughed slightly.

Kara shrugged against Alex's shoulder.

"I want to get a job and have a career."

"Do you still want to be a journalist?"

"I don't know," Kara admitted, "I think so, but I've applied for so many jobs and barely had any interviews, and when I do get one they always bring up why I left CatCo. I really miss working there, I miss working with James and I miss Winn being at CatCo."

"You see him all the time at the DEO." Kara pulled herself out of Alex's arms and shuffled down the bench slightly.

"It's not the same, I'm Supergirl then, it's just not how it used to be," Kara began picking at the zip on her coat, "It's selfish, I know. James is the boss now, it's a massive opportunity for him and Winn is much happier working with you at the DEO. Everyone's better off now, especially you now you've got Maggie. I just…" Kara squirmed uncomfortably, "It doesn't matter."

Alex didn't push Kara any further and Kara finally relaxed slightly, feeling better for getting some of her slightly muddled thoughts out of her head.

"I miss you," Kara whispered after a while.

"I thought you were getting fed up with me hovering over you all the time in the med bay."

Kara pulled Alex into her arms, "You've not been any more irritating than you normally are," Kara smiled as she snuggled into Alex's neck. "How is Maggie after last night?"

"She's just as fed up of me as you are."

Kara hugged Alex tighter, "That's not possible."

* * *

Alex returned to the medical bay with a bag full of treats that she had just bought to try to get Kara to eat. She peered through the door before entering and saw that Kara was on the phone and so she hovered at the window and waited for Kara to finish, trying to give her some privacy. Kara's expression was hard to read. The presence of the crinkle between her eyebrows suggested the conversation was troubling her but she was smiling as she talked down the phone.

Alex waited until Kara had thrown the phone down on the bed next to her before she continued to enter the medical bay.

"Everything alright?" Alex mustered a cheerful smile as she handed Kara the bag of food.

Kara looked startled by her sudden appearance at her bedside but took the plastic bag and rummaged through the contents. After rooting through the bag, she pulled out a bottle of juice but began picking at the label instead of opening it. Alex watched her for a while before taking the unopened bottle away from her again. Kara's big blue eyes turned to her, confused by her actions.

"What's up?" Alex took the lid off the juice and poured some into a glass.

"What?"

"Who was on the phone?"

Kara turned her attention to her hands, worrying her fingers.

"Kara?" Alex took her hands in her own.

"It was Lena," Kara told her matter-of-factly, as if it explained everything.

Alex played dumb and exchanged a blank look with her sister.

"She wants to meet for lunch tomorrow," Kara sighed.

"What did you tell her?"

"I told her I'd call her back; my stupid brain couldn't think of an excuse," Kara took a sip from the glass, her hands shaking as she placed it back on the table.

"Do you want to meet her?"

Kara nodded, "But I don't know if I'll be okay on my own, I can't exactly show up with the earplugs in just in case I can't control my hearing."

"If you wore your hair down..." Alex started.

"Lena would notice them."

"I can sit in my car outside where you are meeting and if there's a problem you can message me and then I'll call you with an emergency so that you can leave."

"That sounds like the plot of a bad comedy."

"Yeah but it could work."

Kara sighed loudly and rested back on her bed.

"Do you want to see Lena tomorrow?" Alex pushed.

"Yeah, I want to get back to normal and meeting Lena for lunch is normal."

"Good, we'll make it happen then."

* * *

Alex watched Kara head towards the café. She was hiding her residual limp well but her gait seemed stiff and awkward, her hands were firmly in her coat pockets as she moved slowly towards her destination and she was overtaken by everybody else on the sidewalk.

Kara had negotiated a destination close to the DEO but away from the main streets and Alex had managed to park her car close enough that she could see right into the building. Lena was already sat at the counter, anxiously watching the entrance, Kara was arriving a little later than agreed.

Kara seemed to hesitate when she reached the door but managed to push through whatever was going on in her head and Lena stood up as she saw her estranged friend. Alex noticed Kara flinch slightly as Lena hugged her and Alex watched Lena's face go from happy to hurt and concerned as she pulled away. They stood awkwardly for a second until Lena gestured to a table and Kara followed her and took a seat away from the window so that Alex could only see Lena and occasionally Kara's arm.

Lena seemed to be doing all the talking from what Alex could see as she nervously picked at the leather trim on her steering wheel. Her gaze drifted to her phone as it vibrated on the empty passenger seat next to her. The screen told her that it was Winn calling but she rejected the call and threw the phone back onto the seat. She turned her attention back to the café only for the phone to ring again. Again, Alex rejected Winn's call, wanting to keep her line free in case Kara wanted to leave.

Alex was fixated on the café window and didn't notice the first few people running past the vehicle. As Kara and Lena were being served their food a group of at least ten people ran down the sidewalk, drawing Alex's attention away from her sister.

In her rear-view mirror she saw a flash of red and blue tumbling to the ground, followed by what appeared to be a human until it got right back to its feet and let a ball of light escape from its mouth.

Alex retrieved her alien gun from her glove box and jumped from her car just in time to witness the laser spitting alien throw Supergirl through the glass front of the café, sending glass flying everywhere and Alex ducking for cover. She recovered quickly, heading for where Lena and Kara had been sitting, jumping straight through what used to be the window instead of running the extra few steps to the door.

The whole place was in disarray, broken tables, chairs and bodies strewn everywhere. The wall behind the now smashed counter had been completely obliterated and the dust from the debris was impairing her vision as she walked further into the building.

"Kara?" She called into the abyss as she helped a fallen man to his feet.

"She's over here."

Alex followed the muffled voice, stumbling briefly over the remains of a table before she finally set eyes on her sister.

Kara was on the floor, back against the wall, blood trickling down her face from a cut on her eyebrow. Her eyes were open and unblinking but her gaze was far away, her chest was rising and falling erratically but the rest of her body was still.

Lena was crouched down next to Kara sporting a singed sleeve and a visible laser burn to her skin underneath.

"She got me out of the way. I don't know if she hit her head but she won't talk to me," Lena informed her calmly as Alex knelt down next to Kara.

"Kara?"

Kara didn't flinch.

"Is everyone alright?" A familiar voice boomed over the chaos.

Alex turned to see J'onn still masquerading as Supergirl at the door to the café flanked by DEO agents.

Alex caught his eye and he approached the three women.

"Kara?" He shook Kara's shoulder but Kara remained unresponsive to the stimulus.

Alex found herself stunned for a moment as she watched Supergirl gather Kara up into her arms. She managed to recover her thoughts and followed them outside only to realise that Lena was also following.

"Agent Davies," she called to the nearest DEO agent, "Can you ensure that Miss Luthor gets her arm treated and then make sure she gets home safely."

The agent nodded curtly in response.

"But…" Lena began.

"I'll update you once she has been checked over," Alex promised over her shoulder as she ran to catch up to Supergirl and her sister.


	28. Chapter 28

Kara heard the chaos as it approached. She had been concentrating on Lena's voice and had successfully been blocking out all the background noise that being out in the real world entailed. It had meant that her conversation with Lena had been rather one-sided but Lena seemed happy to recount her trip to New York uninterrupted and Kara was just happy to see her friend and to be free of the DEO.

The happiness didn't last, these things never do. People were screaming and shouting, running for their lives past the quiet cafe. The stampede of feet on concrete sounded like thunder to her delicate ears, the screams piercing her skull in painful waves. A bright flash from outside blinded her momentarily and as her vision returned it brought with it an excruciating headache as another stream of light went flying past the window. Kara jumped to her feet, grabbing Lena just in time to shield her from the glass and lasers coming towards them as the window completely shattered.

She pushed Lena to the wall and tried to shield her as best as she could without her cape, watching uselessly as Supergirl fought the alien with lasers coming out of its mouth.

The noise as the pair crashed through the wall was like an explosion ripping through her brain and the world ceased to exist for a minute. When reality returned she was against the wall and Lena was staring at her. The silence that had accompanied her black out disappeared and was replaced by an onslaught of panic.

In amongst the sirens and panicked heartbeats, a child was screaming for its mother. Kara's addled mind chose to try to focus on the child's desperate cries instead of searching for comfort. Within seconds it was the only thing she could hear, the rhythmic wailing pulsing through her mind, until it stopped. The child's mother had found her son and her soothing voice replaced the crying. For a second Kara found relief from the chaos but soon the commotion on the street and in the café were intruding on her ears again. Her brain was full of noise.

Lena's voice and then Alex's were vaguely distinguishable but her brain couldn't find a way to respond. A weird image of Supergirl wandering towards her flitted through her scrambled thoughts, she felt like she was hallucinating. As the darkness descended she felt herself being picked up.

* * *

Alex stormed into the medical bay. Kara was slumped on the sunbed, her head was resting on her shoulder, her eyes staring blankly as the medical team rushed around her. Dried blood covered her face but there didn't appear to be a wound on her eyebrow anymore.

J'onn was stood at the end of the bed watching over the team as they worked. Alex pushed through the group to Kara's side where Dr Kemp was attempting to take blood from Kara. Alex froze as she watched the needle snap completely from the syringe as it hit Kara's skin.

"Get me another tray," she ordered as she pushed Dr Kemp out of the way.

She pulled on a pair of gloves and took the equipment tray that was handed to her and popped the cap off the needle. She went straight for Kara's exposed neck. The needle snapped in half and Kara didn't even flinch.

"Everybody get out," she warned, eyes not moving from her sister.

The medical team all took a step back from the area and looked to J'onn who was still stood at the foot of the bed.

J'onn nodded, "Just give us a few minutes," he confirmed Alex's order but didn't move as the rest of the team left the room.

"What do you need?" His voice trailed off as he noticed that Kara's glazed eyes were now orange, the same orange that came before her heat vision.

"She's overstimulated," Alex whispered, keeping back from Kara. "She'll discharge her heat vision until she solar flares. We need to get her to containment cell twenty."

"Twenty? Are you sure?"

Alex nodded firmly and J'onn put one arm around Kara's shoulder and the other under her legs and gently lifted her up. Alex led the way to the holding cells, clearing agents from the corridors in the process and J'onn followed with Kara's body limp in his arms.

Containment cell twenty wasn't like the others. It was set back on its own away from the rest of the cells, its walls were reinforced layers of lead, in between each layer was a vacuum, making it soundproof – or as close to soundproof as it could be for a Kryptonian.

Alex played with the security lock at the entrance until the first door opened and she moved inside to the final door. J'onn followed her, still carrying Kara in his arms, her eyes were leaking heat and his uniform was singed as he held her face to his chest.

Alex cleared the last security protocol and they both entered the cell. The only light came from the outside, the floor was soft and padded, as were the walls. Alex turned to J'onn and nodded and J'onn gently placed Kara down on the soft floor. The blonde's eyes were still glowing and her hair fell unopposed over her blood-stained face. Alex watched her chest rise and fall for a minute before leaving, indicating to J'onn that he should do the same. She secured both doors in turn and then leant against the wall.

Alex felt herself sway even with the support of the wall and J'onn must have seen it because the next thing she knew he was easing her to the ground. She was visibly shaking by the time he pulled her into his arms.

"It's just the adrenaline wearing off," she told J'onn as she pulled away after a couple of minutes.

"I know," J'onn kept her close to him, "How long are you going to leave her in there?" he asked eventually.

"I'm going to sit in there with her as soon as I've calmed myself down, I need my heartbeat and breathing rate to be normal so as to not stress her further but sensory deprivation can be just as bad as overstimulation," Alex told him.

"Yes, I have experience of that," J'onn mused, "Are you going to introduce stimulus slowly?" J'onn asked as he stood up and offered his arm out to Alex.

"I'll start off with just me and once she's acclimatised I'll bring her out here and see how she manages," she explained as she took J'onn's hand and used it to get to her feet.

Alex removed her jacket and shoes before taking a couple of deep breaths. She then began to open the door but noticed that her watch was still ticking away on her wrist and so she removed it and passed it to J'onn before continuing through the door. Once through the second door she laid eyes on Kara through the gloom. She was now curled up on the floor and her eyes were shut. Alex could see her breath hitch with the last of the light as she gently closed the door.

Alex sank to her knees and crawled over the soft floor to Kara. She sat in the dark next to her sister and waited, concentrating on keeping her breathing even, trying to ignore the crushing sensation of the nothingness in the cell.

Just when Alex was beginning to become a little overwhelmed, Kara sat up and moved to lean on Alex.

"Are J'onn and Lena alright?" Kara whispered after a few minutes.

"Yeah, J'onn is just outside and Lena had a small burn to her arm, I sent an agent to escort her home."

"Was anyone killed?"

"No, and the alien is down the hall in a cell," Alex put her arm around Kara and took her hand in hers. Kara flinched slightly at the new sensation of skin on skin contact but the discomfort was fleeting as she got used to the feeling and began to relax again.

"Can I try to turn the lights on?" Alex asked gently.

Kara stayed silent for a while but eventually agreed and Alex made her way over to the door. She turned the ten-digit code into the lock and stepped out of the door to use the control panel.

When she stepped back into the cell the room was dimly lit and Kara was leaning against the wall with her eyes shut. Her skin was red raw from tears as well as dried blood. As Alex approached she slowly opened her eyes briefly, revealing the fresh tears before letting them fall shut again. Alex watched patiently as Kara struggled a few times to adjust to the light before her eyes opened properly.

"Am I allowed out of here?" she asked eventually.

"Of course, if you're ready."

Kara kept her eyes open but didn't move from the wall.

"I think all your powers are present now, we couldn't get a needle through your skin in the med bay."

"So, I'm completely healed?"

Alex nodded, "You'll need a scan to be sure and we'll need to test your powers but I think the adrenaline from what happened in the café has kick started your invulnerability."

Kara shut her eyes and let her head fall back against the padded wall, taking her time to process the information. Eventually, she forced her eyes open again and began to stand up slowly, waving Alex away when she tried to help. Alex watched nervously as Kara walked a couple of laps of the small cell and looked to Alex for some kind of reassurance.

"No limp, looking good," Alex nodded and Kara stood at the door, waiting for Alex to let them out.

Alex messed with the lock and pulled the door open and then did the same for the next door, this time scanning her finger as Kara hovered anxiously behind her.

Both women squinted against the harsh lights of the room outside the holding cell. Alex went to retrieve her shoes and J'onn stepped forward from the wall he had been leaning against to hand her back her watch and jacket.

Kara hung back, leaning on the doorframe, concentrating on the new sensations – the light, the hum of the electrics and most of all J'onn's heartbeat. The unique murmur of the Martian's heart was reassuring and Kara smiled as she looked at him. He smiled back and Kara felt the urge to hug him, overwhelmed with emotion and the feeling that she was going to be okay. She let go of the doorframe and rushed across the room and threw her arms around J'onn, tighter than she could with anyone else, apart from Kal, and buried herself into his chest.

J'onn put his own arms around Kara and exchanged a smile with Alex.

"How do you feel? Is it too loud?" Alex asked, "Because I'm not sure if your hearing will have completely recovered from the drug damage."

"It's louder but it isn't overwhelming," Kara reassured as she released her grip on J'onn.

Kara stood awkwardly on her own feet, she looked a little bit lost for a moment.

"Can I go home?" she asked eventually.

"Why don't we see how your ears tolerate a night in the med bay first?"

Kara didn't argue, instead she led the way from the room and onto the main corridor. Alex noticed a definite hesitation as they walked past the command centre but Kara shook off the noise and continued to stalk back to the medical bay and threw herself onto the sunbed, the whole structure shaking from the force.

"It's just for tonight Kara, we'll see how you are tomorrow."

"We'll need you to complete a field test before you return as Supergirl," J'onn told her firmly.

"Of course," Kara rolled onto her side and adjusted the pillow under her head.

Kara sounded defeated but Alex was just relieved that she didn't flat out refuse and declare that she was not going to return as Supergirl.

"Do you want me to stay with you tonight?" Alex asked.

"Not really," Kara didn't turn back to look at Alex.

"Alright," Alex whispered and J'onn put an arm on her shoulder, "Call me if you need anything."


	29. Chapter 29

Alex felt a little bit overwhelmed as she opened the door to Kara's apartment. The transformation was nearly complete. James was straightening out the dent in Kara's fridge, Winn was setting up his old TV in the centre of Kara's living area and Maggie was hanging one of Kara's paintings above the couch.

Alex gently shut the door behind her catching Maggie's attention. She put down the painting and rushed to the door to greet her, sliding an arm around her waist and reaching up to kiss Alex.

"Are you okay?"

"Tired," Alex admitted as she leaned into Maggie and let her lead her into the apartment.

"Want one Alex?" James waved a bottle of beer at Alex from across the small apartment.

"No, she doesn't," Maggie cut him off before Alex had a chance to respond for herself and guided Alex towards the couch, "She's only here to supervise."

James nodded and opened the beer for himself, took a swig from the bottle and went back to working on the dent in the fridge.

Alex relaxed back into the sofa, admiring the new cushions she and Maggie had picked out as Maggie handed her a bottle of water and placed the bowl of chips on the table next to the sofa.

"How's Kara?" Winn asked Alex, not looking up from the TV he was one-handedly tuning in.

"I don't know," Alex groaned as she leaned forward to grab a handful of chips.

Winn looked up from the TV and raised his eyebrow at Alex, as did James and Maggie.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Maggie dared to ask.

"I mean she won't talk to me," Alex sighed and threw her head back onto the couch.

The trio remained silent, waiting for some reassurance as Winn had already recounted seeing Kara being brought into the med bay unresponsive in J'onn's arms to James and Maggie.

"She's back to full power as far as I can tell, she wouldn't actually let me test her powers though so I can't be completely sure."

Winn's phone interrupted Alex and he answered it as soon as he saw who was calling.

"Kara?"

Alex sat to attention upon hearing her sister's name. Winn noticed and stood up and moved away towards the bedroom, nearly out of Alex's hearing range.

"Oh, you know, not much, just clearing up my hard drive and rewatching Game of Thrones." Alex strained to hear Winn's end of the conversation.

"Um," Winn looked over his shoulder back at Alex, he waved his plastered arm awkwardly in her direction, "Sure," he turned away again, "Where?"

Alex was now on the edge of her seat, waiting to hear the rest of the conversation.

"Yeah, I'll be about twenty minutes."

There was a moment of silence.

"Okay, I'll see you soon."

Winn had hardly got the phone back into his pocket before Alex was on her feet and questioning him.

"What did she want?"

"I'm not sure."

"Is she still at the DEO?" Alex questioned, pulling out her own phone to check the security footage.

"Yeah, she wants to meet me there now."

"Why?"

"I don't know."

"I'm coming with you."

"No," Winn pulled his coat on, struggling to fit his cast through his sleeve.

"What?" Alex took a threatening step towards Winn and both James and Maggie moved closer, ready to step in if need be.

"She asked me not to tell you."

"But…"

"Alex," Maggie stepped closer to her girlfriend, "You said you would try to stop being overprotective."

"I know but…"

Winn fidgeted nervously with the zip on his jacket.

"Alex, she hasn't left the DEO, she's okay," Maggie reassured.

"I'll call you if there's a problem," Winn tried to reassure as he headed for the door.

"You better had do," Alex threatened and threw herself back down on the couch.

* * *

The first time that Winn had given her her supersuit and she had stood in front of the mirror in her old apartment had been one of the best days of her life. She was finally being true to herself, or at least she thought she had been. For a while she had been a symbol of hope – strong and brave, but now she was neither. Now she looked like a little girl playing dress up.

It was the same suit, an extra pocket and a slightly different lining, but Winn had proudly told her that he'd managed to repair her original suit, including the cape, without starting from scratch.

Kara had reluctantly changed into the suit and was now stood in the bathroom scrutinising her appearance in the mirror. The cape seemed to swamp her, the entire suit felt a bit loose but the cape especially just seemed to fit all wrong, hanging limply off her shoulders. The cape usually made her look bigger than she was but now she looked like a kid with a blanket wrapped around her neck.

She unfolded her arms from across her chest and placed them on her hips, trying to imitate her own signature pose, her classic superhero stance. She looked stupid and pathetic.

A knock at the door startled her and she wrapped her arms back around herself protectively.

"Kara?" It was Winn, she had forgotten that he was waiting to take a look at the suit, "Is everything okay?"

Kara turned back to look at herself and stood up straight, pulling at the edge of her skirt and taking a deep breath.

"Kara? Can I come in?" Winn was in the process of knocking again as Kara opened the door.

"Is it alright?" Winn asked, looking her up and down and smiling.

"Yeah, it feels good to put it back on," she lied.

"I repaired it as soon as the parasite destroyed it. I was just waiting until you asked for it to give it back. I was getting worried, I thought you would have wanted it sooner."

"Thanks Winn," she offered up the best smile she could muster.

"Do you want to take it for a spin?" Winn sensed her hesitance.

"I'm not sure, I don't think Alex would want me to."

"Oh, okay," Winn looked disappointed.

"Although, I disabled the sensor and CCTV, I guess she wouldn't have to know," Kara shrugged, a mischievous glint in her eye.

"Let me see if there is anything on the scanner," Winn pulled his phone out and tapped on the screen a few times.

"You're still using the NCPD scanner?"

"Yeah, I use it to guide Guardian. J'onn found out I was using DEO resources and banned me from using their tech."

Kara watched him anxiously but a small part of her was beginning to feel a bit excited.

"Here we go, hostages have been taken during an armed robbery."

"Where?" Kara began to leave the bay.

"Uptown, Gold's Diner, just north of…"

"I know it," Kara interrupted as she marched down the corridor.

Winn had to run to keep up as Kara headed to the balcony entrance to the DEO.

"Do you want me to call J'onn for backup?"

"Nope," Kara took a step outside to the balcony but paused and then turned back to hug a surprised Winn. She let go and ran onto the balcony, leaping into the air and disappearing from view almost immediately.

* * *

Kara had successfully apprehended the armed robber and released the hostages and was now flying high over the city. The wind was strong and it rippled through her suit, knocking her off balance slightly. She fell at least forty feet before she managed to right herself, only just managing to avoid clipping the roof of an office block.

"Hey Supergirl?" Winn's worried voice came through her earpiece. Kara rolled her eyes. Her x-ray vision had seen the extra tracking and monitoring equipment that Winn had rigged into her uniform.

"What's up Winn? I'm just heading back."

"You lost quite a lot of height just then, is everything okay?"

"It's just a bit windy up here and I'm a little bit rusty."

"Good," Winn's sigh was loud and clear over the comm, "Are you up for another mission?"

"I guess," Kara came to a halt and hovered above the city, waiting for Winn's instructions.

"There's a fire at an apartment block by the river, it sounds like it's spreading fast."

"I'm on my way." Kara shot off towards her new destination.

"Are you sure? You don't want to overdo it."

"Winn you sound like Alex," Kara whined.

"Sorry."

"I'm almost there, I'll check in when I'm on my way back."

"Be careful."

Kara shut off her earpiece as she approached the apartment block. She could instantly see where she was needed. There was a woman dangling her child out of a window to keep them away from the smoke. Kara flew down, taking the toddler in one arm and the young mother in her other arm. She flew them both down to the paramedics waiting on the ground before jumping back into the air.

She entered the building back through the same window. The fire was raging, flames had engulfed the whole apartment and Kara dowsed the entirety in her freeze breath, easily eradicating the flames before moving out into the hallway, listening intently as she put out the flames licking at the front door of the next apartment. She thought she could hear something from behind the door.

"Is anyone in there?" she shouted.

All she got in response was silence but she scanned the door with her x-ray vision, she couldn't see anyone but then she heard a small whimper.

She rushed at the door, sending it falling to the floor. The apartment was full of smoke but the fire hadn't spread past the door. Kara inhaled deeply, clearing as much of the smoke as she could as she searched the apartment. She ran to the nearest window and exhaled the smoke out into the air before trying the door to what she assumed was a bedroom. It was locked. With her x-ray vision she could see a small child in the closet curled up.

Kara gently removed the door from its hinges and placed it to the side to try not to scare the child. She opened the wardrobe to reveal a small boy clutching a bundle of blankets tightly. The child didn't look at her, instead he tried to crawl further into the closet but Kara reached out to the boy.

"I'm here to help."

The child turned slowly to look at her.

"Supergirl?"

"That's me," Kara smiled.

"My sister," the child moved the blanket slightly to reveal a small baby.

"Where is your mom?" Kara asked as she scanned the apartment again with both her hearing and vision.

"She's at work."

"Is anyone else here?"

The child shook his head.

"I'm going to get you out of here, just wait there one second." Kara ran to the bedroom window and smashed the glass, making sure to clear all the sharp edges. She then ran back to the closet.

"I'm going to fly you out. Do you think you can give me your sister?"

The child gently handed his baby sister to Kara who cradled the baby with one hand and then reached back out to the child.

"Come here, put your arms around me," Kara ushered the child into her other arm and then carried them both to the window, "Shut your eyes," she nudged the child's head into her shoulder so that he couldn't look down, "You and your sister are going to be fine," she reassured as she floated out of the window, slowly drifting to the ground.

She carried the children to the nearest ambulance; a paramedic took the baby from her arm and their partner attempted to take the child but he clung onto Kara, still resting on her hip.

"I need you to be brave and stay with your sister until your mom gets here." Kara eased the child away from her, "Can you do that for me?" she asked as she handed the boy to the paramedic.

The child nodded and the medic took him into the back of the ambulance with his sister.

"Supergirl?" Kara spun around to see a firefighter running towards her.

"Is there any chance you can help my team disperse some of the smoke? I want to try to get this building safe for the residents to get back in tonight."

"I'll see what I can do," Kara told him and leapt back into the air and headed back into the building through the window she had just smashed.

The smoke was still thick and it stung her eyes. Relying on her hearing to guide her she sucked up as much smoke as she could before blowing it out of the window. She continued until the air was nearly clear and Winn's voice was buzzing in her ear again.

"Supergirl? Is everything okay?"

"Yes Winn, just finishing up," she wheezed.

She inhaled a final gulp of polluted air and expelled it into the sky before descending back onto the sidewalk.

"Is there anything else you need Captain?" she addressed the firefighter.

"No, we've got it from here," he extended his arm to her, "Thank you Supergirl," he shook her hand firmly.

"Not a problem," Kara smiled and then jumped back into the sky for the final time.

The air was cold high above the city and it exasperated her already irritated lungs. She found herself coughing uncontrollably as she finally reaped the repercussions of inhaling so much smoke. She ignored Winn who was asking her if she was okay again in her ear and flew as fast as she could tolerate back to the DEO.

As soon as she had landed on the balcony Winn was running up the stairs from the command centre to meet her. His eyes were wide as he took in her dishevelled, soot stained appearance.

"I'm fine," she told him firmly before he had a chance to ask her and headed up the stairs to the med bay.

"Are you sure," Winn ran after her.

"Yeah, I just need a shower," she said as she reached the door.

"Oh, okay," Winn still looked worried.

"Really Winn, I'm fine," she pulled him in for a hug, "Thank you for tonight," she whispered into his shoulder before pulling away and entering the medical bay.

"Oh, you need to call Alex, she's been calling your phone for the last two hours," Winn called after her.

"Will do," Kara promised but didn't turn back to look at Winn.

She went straight to the bathroom, turned on the shower and struggled with her suit until she had removed it completely and it was in a heap on the floor. She stood under the hot water and scrubbed at her hair and skin until she was sure she was completely free of the smell of smoke. She then rinsed her suit in the shower water until it too was free from the dirt collected over the evening. Only when the water ran clear down the plug hole did she let the panic that had been building up consume her.

Her vision seemed to be fading and she lowered herself to the floor to prevent her inevitable collapse. Her heart was beating uncomfortably hard against her ribs and she was only managing to breathe in short gasps. There was no way she was getting enough air into her lungs but this thought only encouraged her fear and her hands and feet began to tingle. She brought her knees up to her chin and rocked back and forth slowly until she soothed herself and she had run out of tears.


	30. Chapter 30

It was early when Alex entered the command centre sipping on a large black coffee. There were a few agents from the night shift milling around but the place was fairly deserted save for J'onn and Winn. J'onn was sat at the central table, his fingers massaging his temple.

"I saw the news, you had a busy night last night," Alex placed a coffee in front of him on the table.

J'onn looked up at Alex blankly.

"The apartment block fire. You rescued four people, three of them children."

J'onn looked across at Winn who was guiltily looking at his computer screen.

"What's going on?" Alex asked looking from J'onn to Winn and back again.

"That wasn't me last night," J'onn told her.

"What?" Alex was confused, she was tired and struggling to connect the dots, "Well who was it then… oh." Alex's face fell and she pushed herself up off the table she had been leaning on and stormed across the command centre to Winn.

"What happened last night?" Alex towered over Winn in his chair.

"What do you mean?" Winn stumbled to his feet nervously.

"You were with her last night, was it your idea?"

"Of course not," Winn stuttered, moving backwards to get away from Alex.

"Why did she call you?" Alex kept moving towards Winn until he was against the wall.

"Winn, I swear to God, I will break your other arm," she threatened.

"That's enough Alex," J'onn growled as he took her arm and pulled her away from Winn gently.

Winn threw him a grateful look and moved away.

"Not so fast Agent Schott," J'onn turned his attention back to Winn, "Supergirl isn't cleared for duty and whilst I can't actually stop Kara if she wants to carry on, I can stop you. No more side missions with Supergirl until I clear her to work for the DEO, is that clear?"

"Understood sir," Winn went to sit back at his computer.

J'onn cleared his throat and Winn looked up from the screen again.

"What happened last night?" J'onn asked.

Winn sighed and leant back in his chair.

"She asked for her suit, she tried it on and then she tried it out a few times," Winn avoided Alex and J'onn's eyes.

"How many times is a few times?" Alex pushed.

Winn shrugged, "It was just the armed robbery but on the way back there was that apartment fire."

"Is she okay?"

"She seemed fine."

"She better had be," Alex warned as she left the command centre, taking the steps to the med bay two at a time.

Kara was curled up and asleep on the sunbed in her pyjamas. Her suit had been discarded carelessly on the floor between her bed and the couch and the contents of one of her bags was strewn all over the place.

Alex tiptoed into the room and began tidying around Kara's bed area. She put the suit back on the hanger that had been left on the sofa and hung it up at the back of the room. She then began to put some of Kara's clothes back into her bag. She found the bag of junk food she had brought in for Kara the other day under the clutter, but it looked untouched save for a half full packet of Oreos, although Alex suspected that it was probably Winn and not Kara who had eaten them.

She straightened Kara's glasses on the table, her ear plugs were still in their box next to them where Alex had left them for her in case of emergency.

"Agent Danvers? You're early."

Alex turned to see Dr Kemp and put her finger to her lips before indicating to the other side of the bay.

"Have you got time to start those tests now?" Alex asked as she got to the other end of the room.

"Sure, take a seat."

"Thanks."

"Have you had plenty to drink this morning?"

"Yep," Alex nodded and placed her arm out for Dr Kemp.

Alex relaxed back into the chair, choosing not to watch as he took the samples of her blood. When she opened her eyes again she noticed Kara was watching her from the edge of her bed. Dr Kemp withdrew the needle and placed some gauze over the wound. Alex put her own fingers on the gauze to apply pressure and wriggled down off the chair and over to her sister.

"Are you okay?" Kara's eyes were wide with concern.

"Yeah, just routine tests, I need a full medical before J'onn will let me go back to work properly." Alex sat down on the bed next to Kara and tucked a blonde curl behind her sister's ear.

"I hear you had a busy night," Alex started.

"Nothing ever changes," Kara mumbled, staring down at her feet which were hanging just off the floor.

"What?"

"Winn still can't keep his mouth shut."

"In fairness to him, you made the news with that apartment block fire and it was J'onn that told me that it wasn't him playing dress up."

Kara began to fidget, waiting for the inevitable reprimanding.

"Did your powers seem okay?"

"Yeah, no problems."

"Good," Alex squeezed Kara's shoulder and then kissed her cheek lightly before making her way back over to Dr Kemp so that he could finish his mandatory tests.

* * *

Kara looked small and human stood in the intimidating training arena. Alex had wanted Kara to wear her uniform to train in, but Kara had insisted on wearing her sweatpants and old grey and white baseball shirt. They made her seem young and fragile.

"What?" Kara asked as she noticed her sister staring at her and began to smooth the top of her pants down nervously.

"Nothing, just thinking," Alex reassured and stepped closer to adjust the headband around her sister's head and placed a couple of hair grips to try and give it more support to stay in place.

"How does that feel?"

Kara shook her head back and forth erratically a few times, "Seems pretty secure," she confirmed, starting to fiddle with the monitoring bracelet on her arm.

"Stop messing with that," Alex swatted her hand away from her wrist.

"It's distracting."

"Tough, I'm sure once you are fighting you'll be able to ignore it. There's one more thing you need on."

Kara pouted.

"Turn around and lift up your top."

Kara obliged and rolled the bottom of her t-shirt up, exposing her back to Alex.

There was a knock at the door.

"Are you two ready?" J'onn's voice boomed through the small crack in the door.

"One minute," Alex called, peeling the back off the sticker in her hand and putting it on the middle of Kara's back, carefully smoothing the edges, "Okay, turn around," she told her and then placed a smaller sticker on Kara's chest.

"Okay J'onn, we're ready," Alex called as she helped Kara pull her t-shirt back down.

J'onn pushed the door open slowly and peered through the crack to make sure it was safe to enter.

"You ready, Supergirl?"

Kara nodded and moved to the centre of the windowless training room, separating her legs slightly, readying her stance.

Alex watched as J'onn shifted into his Martian form and ran straight at Kara, tackling her and throwing her over his shoulder, sending her falling to the ground behind him. Kara couldn't stop herself in time and hit the floor hard. Alex winced, mirroring Kara's own expression and fought the urge to tell J'onn to take it easy. Instead she kept an eye on the readings on her tablet from the monitoring attached to Kara.

Kara recovered quickly and blocked J'onn's blows with relative ease but struggled to get close enough to the Martian to land a fist or foot on him.

Kara's vitals stayed within acceptable parameters and Alex began to relax a little and studied Kara's movements. They were stiff and slightly uncoordinated, it reminded Alex of how she fought when she first started training Kara under the kryptonite emitters, strong but lacking in focus and technique.

There was a thud as Kara jumped into the air to avoid J'onn's leg only to misjudge the height and crash into the ceiling, narrowly avoiding a light fitting and cracking several of the tiles.

"Concentrate Supergirl," J'onn chastised as he ran to the other end of the training room.

Kara launched a stream of heat vision in J'onn's direction, but he phased through it and the beams scorched the wall behind him instead.

Alex nervously glanced at her tablet, but the use of her heat vision hadn't negatively impacted any of Kara's vitals.

Kara threw her fist at J'onn again, she hit him squarely in the chest but J'onn didn't flinch and grabbed her other hand and held her in place with it.

"Focus," he growled as he let her go again and moved backwards towards the wall, eyes daring Kara to come at him.

Kara flew towards him but just as she reached him, J'onn phased backwards through the wall resulting in Kara crashing into and almost straight through the reinforced wall.

Alex was on her feet before J'onn had fully materialised again and ran to her sister's side. Kara was embedded in the thick metal wall of the training room, struggling to free her right arm. The air around her was thick with displaced wall that had been smashed to dust and was beginning to fall to the ground.

Alex leant over and reached into the hole to help Kara remove herself from the wall. Kara groaned as Alex pulled her arm out of the now mangled metal. As soon as she was free Alex started examining her, rapidly firing questions in her direction.

"Alex!" Kara shouted to stop her sister's fussing, "I'm fine," she eased herself forward and grabbed Alex's hand, "There's not a scratch on me," she let go of her sister and got to her feet and began to pick at one of the holes that had been ripped into the sleeve of her t-shirt.

"I liked this t-shirt," Kara mumbled under her breath.

Something in Alex snapped seeing the tears in the t-shirt and she ran at J'onn who had shifted back into human form.

"What the fuck?" Alex pinned J'onn against the wall, reaching up so her arm was against his neck.

"Alex calm down," Kara pulled her sister away from J'onn, knowing that he wouldn't do it for himself.

"He could have killed you."

"Alex," J'onn started.

"Alex it was my fault, I wasn't focused enough," Kara interjected as she pulled Alex's shoulder, forcing her to turn to look at her and then grabbed both her hands, resting them in her own.

"I'm fine," she swung Alex's arms, "I know I scared you and I know I was really unwell, but I'm better now," she punctuated her words with another tug on Alex's arms. "I probably just need a few sessions to refresh my skills," she turned to J'onn, "You ready for round two boss?"

J'onn hesitated and looked to Alex who was now refusing to look at him.

"Why don't we take a break?"

Kara nodded and J'onn left the training room, glancing back at Alex as he left, but she was still staring at the floor.

"We need to get you under the sun lamps and check your solar radiation levels," Alex picked up her tablet and turned to follow J'onn out of the room.

"But I barely used my powers."

"Well then it'll only take a minute," Alex stalked out of the training area towards the med bay.

"Actually," Alex stopped suddenly and turned around, "I'll meet you there in a minute," she handed Kara the tablet and headed back the way she had come, leaving Kara standing confused in the corridor.

Once around the corner Alex ran to the locker room and threw herself to the floor in front of one of the toilets. She was sick and continued to retch long after her stomach was empty. She used the toilet bowl to pull herself to her feet and flushed the toilet before heading for the sinks, using the wall to steady herself.

After washing her hands and rinsing her mouth out she splashed water over her face and pulled herself together. She gazed at her reflection in the mirror for a minute, running her fingers through her hair to try and tame it until a fellow agent wandered into the locker room and began to change. Alex exchanged and awkward smile with the agent and then rushed towards the med bay to check on Kara.

Kara was obediently waiting on the sun bed. They exchanged suspicious looks with each other as Alex entered the medical bay. Kara's eyes looked red and her breathing seemed forced, like she was struggling to keep it under control and she had clearly been crying.

Alex chose not to broach the subject straight away, instead she hunted for the sun bed remote control, eventually finding it under Kara's discarded hoodie.

"You are so messy, I only tidied around here this morning," she scolded as she turned the sun bed on.

"There's nowhere for me to put anything here," Kara moaned.

"I've seen how your apartment looks at the end of the week, you are just a messy person."

Kara shrugged innocently and watched Alex fiddle with a couple of the buttons.

"Okay, your solar radiation levels are 99%"

"Good," Kara swung her legs off the bed and jumped to her feet.

"Where are you going?"

"To stretch my legs, Winn said he'd catch me up on the latest missions and threats as well as update me on Cadmus." Kara's body language told Alex that she was lying.

"Okay, I'll come with you," she offered as Kara picked up her DEO hoodie and began to pull it over her head.

"Don't you want to take off the monitoring stickers?" Alex quipped as she glanced at the tablet Kara had left on the table.

"Oh yeah," Kara tried to reach the sticker on her back with the hoodie still around her neck.

"Kara, your heart is racing," Alex frowned at the data on the tablet, "Do you feel okay?"

"Yep." Again deceptive.

"Kara, I know you are lying," Alex decided to call her out.

Kara stopped struggling to reach the sticker on her back and instead pulled her hoodie down and threw herself onto the couch, almost toppling it over with the sheer force of her body hitting it.

"Alex, you know I have super hearing, right?"

Alex nodded slightly, unsure of where Kara was going with this.

"I can hear your heartbeat," Kara began to twirl one of the strings on her hoodie, "Yours is beating pretty fast too."

Alex leant against the desk on the opposite side of the bed.

"Is there something you're not telling me?" Kara whispered.

"I was about to ask you the same thing," Alex shot back.

"I heard you throwing up just now, are you still not well?" Kara's eyes were welling with tears.

Alex hesitated, trying to choose her words carefully.

"Alex? Please tell me," Kara's voice cracked.

Alex pushed herself off the table and sat down next to Kara.

"No, my blood tests this morning were all back to normal, there is no sign of any long-term damage."

"But I heard you being sick," Kara's breathing was getting fast again.

"I think that might have just been a reaction to watching you flying yourself into a wall." Alex leant against her sister and sighed, "If I'm being honest I keep having flashbacks to you lying in the desert bleeding out, especially at night. Seeing you crashing through that wall brought it all back and for a second I couldn't tell if you were breathing and…" Alex snuggled into Kara, letting her sister put her arm around her.

Alex listened to Kara's heart through her hoodie. It was still racing, and Kara's breathing seemed more like gasps for air.

"Kara what's going on?"

"Panic attack," she managed to get out between gasps for breath, "I thought it was over but apparently not." She pulled her legs up onto the couch and shook Alex off as she put her head between her knees and wrapped her arms around her legs, digging her fingers into her hands.

"Kara, I need you to breathe with me, in through your nose and out through your mouth. When we get to twenty-one we'll start again, okay?"

Kara nodded but didn't move her head from between her knees.

It took ten minutes to calm Kara down, her breathing finally evened out and she brought her head up and moved into Alex's arms. Alex stroked her head, gently twirling a strand of Kara's long blonde hair as her sister sobbed silently into her chest.

"How many times has this happened?" Alex asked eventually.

"A few."

"Kara, why didn't you tell me?"

Kara didn't respond but buried her face further into Alex's chest.

"Do you know what's triggering them?"

Kara shrugged and Alex could feel the tears seeping through her t-shirt.

"Kara, talk to me."

"I've been having them at night, but this was my third one since I met Lena yesterday. I had one after you brought me back to the med bay yesterday, one after I came back from that fire and one when I heard you being sick." Kara sniffed as she sat up and wiped her nose on her torn-up sleeve, "It seems to be mainly when I think about being Supergirl."

"I thought it went well last night?"

"It did, but I didn't plan on going out last night, I didn't have time to think. I felt great until I got back here and the adrenaline rush wore off. My brain started working overtime."

"You never used to have a problem rushing headfirst into danger, what's changed?"

"I don't know," Kara whispered.

Alex watched Kara think for a while in silence, trying to come up with a solution of her own.

"Kara?" Alex waited until she had her sister's attention, "Do you want to go home?"


	31. Chapter 31

The silence in the vehicle weighed heavily on Alex as she drove Kara home. Kara's face was resting against the cold window, eyes staring blankly out at the city as Alex sped through the traffic. Kara winced every time Alex hit the brakes or took a corner too fast but didn't look away from the window until Alex finally dumped her car in an empty spot across the street from the apartment building.

The silence continued once they were safely across the road and in the elevator, both women watching the floor numbers increasing from opposite sides of the lift. Alex was already regretting letting Kara come home, she still hadn't had a brain scan or the array of other tests that Alex wanted to make sure she wasn't missing anything. She had tried to back track already and then when Kara had insisted on leaving she suggested that Kara stay at Alex's apartment instead but Kara was set on not imposing on Alex any further and sleeping in her own bed tonight.

The elevator shuddered to a halt and for a second Alex had thought that the rickety old thing had broken down, but finally the door slid open revealing the gloomy hallway.

Alex led the way past a couple of the doors until she reached Kara's front door. It looked unassuming, no different than the other doors that they had passed but as Alex put the key in the lock, a small panel opened, revealing a fingerprint scanner. Alex placed her finger on the scanner and then turned the key, causing the door to open.

"Who else will my door open for?" Kara asked suspiciously as Alex held it open for her.

"Just you, me and J'onn," Alex shrugged and ushered her inside the apartment.

Kara froze as she took in the sight of her redecorated apartment. Gone were the grey concrete walls, the worn, bloodstained carpet and smashed window. In fact, there wasn't any sign that she had crashed through the apartment at all. The walls were freshly painted and her paintings and photographs were dotted everywhere.

Kara wandered around the apartment, trying to take in all the little improvements and struggling to find the words to express herself.

"Did you do this?" Kara turned back to Alex eventually, eyes wide.

"It was mainly Maggie in the end but Winn, James and I helped," Alex sat down on the couch and turned on the TV.

"Is that new?" Kara asked, indicating to the television.

"No, it's Winn's old one and he set it all up for you," Alex informed Kara as she did another lap of her apartment before joining Alex on the couch, lip wobbling slightly.

"What's wrong?" Alex scooted next to Kara, "Is it the cushions? Me and Maggie had so many disagreements about these cushions," she fluffed the cushion next to her for effect.

Kara flashed her a watery smile and pulled one of the cushions into her lap and began to hug it.

"They're perfect. It's all perfect. How am I ever going to repay you all?"

"Kara, you've done so much for all of us, we owe you so much, a little bit of paint and some cushions doesn't even begin to cover it," Alex squeezed Kara's leg, "Now can we start with Pitch Perfect 2 or do I have to suffer through the original first?"

Kara smiled guiltily, "Can we watch both?"

"Of course," Alex moved to put the film on but a knock at the door had her stopping in her tracks, her hand instinctively moving to the alien gun on her hip as she moved in front of Kara.

"It's just the pizza you ordered," Kara peered over her glasses.

Alex smoothed her jacket back over her weapon and answered the door, threw a couple of notes at the delivery guy and grabbed the pizza, shutting the door without a word to the man and without waiting for her change.

"That was rude," Kara raised her eyebrow as Alex placed the pizza box on the coffee table.

Alex shrugged as she went back to putting on the movie and then went to the kitchen to grab some plates.

"I'll be back in a minute," Alex handed Kara a plate, "You can start without me."

Alex used the bathroom and then messaged Maggie before returning to the couch.

"You've got your appetite back then?" Alex asked as she reached into the now nearly empty pizza box.

Kara shamelessly took another slice for herself and shrugged, "I could go for some ice cream."

"Check your freezer, I've stocked you right up." Kara grinned as she shoved the pizza in her mouth and ran to her freezer.

"Bring me a spoon," Alex called over to her with a mouthful of pizza.

Kara examined the contents of her freezer before picking out a tub and collecting a couple of spoons.

"What flavour did you pick?"

"Cookie dough," Kara smiled as she sat back down on the couch.

She pulled the top off and stuck her spoon in the ice cream as Alex went for her second slice of pizza. Alex watched Kara intently as she tucked into the ice cream and began to watch the movie.

"I've missed this," Alex smiled.

"What?" Kara was concentrating on her next spoonful of ice cream.

"Movie night, pizza, ice cream, all of it."

"Me too," Kara didn't look up from the ice cream.

"Kara?"

Kara looked up, "Sorry did you want some?" she offered the tub to Alex.

"No, you carry on," Alex pushed the tub away, "Kara, can we talk?"

"We're talking now," Kara said with her mouthful.

"Kara?"

"What do you want to talk about?" Kara began to carefully examine her spoon and sank further into the sofa.

"I just need to know that you're okay."

Kara didn't reply straight away, seemingly considering her answer.

"I'm getting there," Kara whispered.

"It just seems like…"

"Are you okay?" Kara cut her off defensively.

"Kara?"

"Seriously, tell me the truth Alex. You tested that drug on yourself, I would never have asked you to do that for me."

"Well you were in no position to be asking," Alex muttered, "Seriously Kara, I'm fine. Dr Kemp agrees that there will be no long-term damage. You don't need to keep stewing over it."

"I'm not stewing," Kara took another spoonful of ice cream.

"You're doing it right now, I can see it in your eyes," Alex moved her finger to Kara's eyes.

"I don't want to keep lying to you," Kara mumbled as she scraped her spoon around the tub.

"About what?" Alex asked as Kara finished the carton of ice cream and super sped over to her freezer to get another before speeding back to the couch.

Kara shrugged, "I just… I don't really know how to explain it."

"Can you try to, for me?" Alex asked softly.

"Do we have to talk about this right now?"

"Kara, I just want to understand."

"Please Alex, I don't want to talk about it," Kara pleaded, her eyes desperate.

"I just don't want things to go back to how they were before." Alex moved closer to Kara.

"How do you mean?" Kara mused going back to her ice cream.

"It's just that you're back here and I can't help but worry about you. You didn't tell me that you were struggling financially, you didn't tell me that you had had to move out of your loft, you didn't tell me that you were feeling so isolated," Alex sniffed slightly. "I know it's my fault. I know I should've noticed, I'm your sister and it hurts that I let you struggle through all that alone."

Kara almost chewed through the spoon in her mouth as she listened.

"I just suddenly feel like there is this massive disconnect and I have no idea how to help you," Alex sighed.

"It doesn't feel sudden to me," Kara whispered as she placed the ice cream on her side table.

"It's just that Winn and Ms Grant left CatCo, you met Maggie, James became Guardian and…" Kara faltered slightly. "It's not that I'm not happy for you all but everything seemed to change so much and everyday it felt like you were all moving forward without me, especially you."

"Kara, how many times do I have to tell you? I'm not going anywhere, not ever."

"I know but…"

"Not ever, Kara." Alex told her firmly.

Kara dived into Alex's arms and let Alex hold her.

"It'll get better you know," Alex stroked her arm, deciding not to push Kara any further.

"I hope so," Kara snuggled into her sister and tried to concentrate on the movie.

* * *

Bright light blinded Alex as she dared to open her eyes. She sat up and nearly fell right out of the bed when she realised it wasn't her own and that she couldn't immediately recognise where she was. Sunlight was streaming through paper thin curtains, irritating her tired eyes and already aching head.

She sat up properly and a quick look around made her realise she was in Kara's room. She vaguely remembered Kara dozing off halfway through the first movie and she must have followed fairly soon after as she couldn't really remember after that. As she pulled the blanket back over her she caught a glimpse of her watch which informed her that it was just after eleven and groaned, she was extremely late for work.

Figuring that Kara must have carried her to the bed at some point, she went to try to find her sister.

"Morning!" Kara called brightly from where she was sprawled lazily on the couch watching Pitch Perfect 2.

"Why did you let me sleep so late? I was supposed to be taking my fitness test and you were supposed to be having your scan this morning."

"I know, I've been fielding your calls all morning," Kara pointed to Alex's cell phone that she had left on the table next to her gun.

"Who called?" Alex frowned.

"First it was Maggie, it was her call that woke me up. She was just calling to say good morning but she told me not to wake you up."

Alex nodded as she went to make herself a coffee.

"I'll do that," Kara jumped to her feet, "You sit down, I've prepared pancake batter, I'll make you breakfast," Kara nudged her towards the couch.

"Who else called?" Alex sat herself down and picked up her phone.

"Dr Kemp, he said he is free all day and can reschedule your blood tests and my scan for this afternoon," Kara informed her as she shot a gentle blast of her heat vision into the kettle.

Alex nodded, "And then Winn, Maggie, J'onn, Maggie, Maggie and then J'onn again by the looks of it," Alex sighed as she scrolled through her call log.

"Yeah, Winn because you weren't at work, Maggie just after that because Winn had texted her to see if you were with her when you didn't show up and then J'onn called about a minute later to see why you were late," Kara chirped as she filled a cup for Alex. "Then Maggie called twice to see if you were awake yet and J'onn called again to check in," Kara handed her her coffee.

Alex took a sip before the phone in her hand began to ring.

"It's Maggie again," Alex stood up and waved the phone and then took herself back into Kara's bedroom.

"Pancakes will be five minutes," Kara called after her as Alex shut the door.

"Hey Mags."

"You're finally up." Alex could hear her smile through the phone.

"Yeah, sorry. I fell asleep and Kara carried me to bed and so I left my phone on the coffee table, I didn't hear you calling."

"It's okay, Kara filled me in, she said you were fast asleep."

"Yeah, I actually slept really well. Kara's couch and bed are both comfier than they look," Alex told her as she made Kara's bed, smoothing the comforter down and fluffing the pillows.

"Is Kara alright?"

"Yeah, she appeared to be a bit overwhelmed last night but this morning she seems okay. Are you at work?"

"Yep, but I'm just catching up on paperwork, do you need anything?"

"No, after breakfast I'm going to take Kara for her CT scan."

"Okay, do you think you'll be home tonight?"

"I don't know yet, I'll see how Kara is after the DEO."

"Alex, pancakes are ready," Kara's voice boomed through the apartment.

"I've got to go Maggie, Kara made me breakfast."

"Is that safe?"

"She's good at cooking breakfast, especially pancakes," Alex reassured her, "I'll text you later."

"Love you."

"Love you too."

Alex ended the call and as soon as she exited the bedroom Kara handed her a stack of pancakes.

"Are you sure this isn't your plate?" Alex asked, taking in the sheer amount of food on her plate.

"I already ate a batch whilst I was waiting for you to get up," Kara smiled, "But I can help you eat yours if you want."


	32. Chapter 32

Kara was on edge, her whole body felt both numb and itchy at the same time. The paper-thin gown that Alex had insisted she wear was irritating her as was the mechanical noise of the scanner.

"Kara, can you try to keep still for two more minutes?"

"It's really loud in here," Kara shouted for effect.

"Two minutes, Kara," Alex emphasised through the intercom again.

"Okay, I heard you," Kara called in frustration.

Kara shut her eyes and tried to block out the noise. It worked, in a way. The low whirring hum of the scanner transformed into a high-pitched buzzing and she felt herself tense up despite her best efforts to relax and keep still. The ringing in her ears continued for what seemed like forever. Kara wanted to call out to Alex to make sure that she hadn't just left her in the scanner but the words seemed to stick in her throat just as she managed to block out the sound completely.

The silence she was left with hung heavily in the room, suffocating her. It kept pressing in on her as did the walls of the scanner, inching closer and closer until they engulfed her completely. All Kara wanted to do was run, to smash her way through the walls until she found her way to fresh air.

"Kara?" The bed she was on moved out of the scanner and Kara flinched away and kept her eyes screwed shut as Alex took her hand.

"It's all done, you can get up." Alex's voice seemed distant and hazy, like maybe she was imagining it.

Kara stayed still and didn't allow herself to believe Alex was really there. She felt that if she opened her eyes there would be nothing but white walls and her own tears.

"Kara, open your eyes, everything is okay," Alex tried to sooth her.

Kara slowly did as she was told, squinting against the harsh light and sterile white walls. The tears that had built up behind her eye lids inevitably tumbled down her cheeks and as she lay eyes on Alex's troubled features she couldn't stop the cry that escaped her lips.

Alex looked devastated and it only made Kara cry more. She gasped for breaths between sobs until she eventually ran out of tears. Alex whispered in her ear throughout, but Kara couldn't focus on what she was saying.

Alex helped Kara down from the bed and led her into a room to the side where she had left her clothes. Alex then tried to help her out of the gown but Kara pushed her away, waiting for Alex to leave the room before she started to get changed. She dressed at human speed to try to give herself time to fully calm down. She could hear Alex hovering outside and a quick flash of x-ray vision revealed that she was leaning on the wall next to the door, fidgeting nervously with her hands. She rushed her shoes on to go and reassure her sister.

"I'm sorry," she declared as she opened the door, "I don't know what happened in there," she tried to smile as she started off down the corridor.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Alex called after her, almost having to run to keep up with Kara's long strides.

Kara stopped in her tracks and then turned back on herself, almost walking into Alex in the process. The concern in her sister's eyes was too much to bear and Kara tried to sort herself out.

"I over corrected my hearing to block out the noise from the scanner. I couldn't hear anything, it was completely silent. That mixed with the small space, it just brings up bad memories."

"Of your pod?"

Kara nodded and Alex pulled her into a hug, only pulling away when she heard voices further down the corridor.

"Your scans looked okay to me, I'm going to go and take a proper look with Dr Kemp, do you want to come with me?" Alex asked.

"Actually, J'onn wanted to speak to me." Kara smoothed her cardigan down, "Do you need to run anymore tests?"

"No, I think we've covered everything. I'll walk you to his office."

"No, it's okay, I think I can manage."

Alex smiled, "Of course you can. I'm heading to the gym after I meet with Dr Kemp, I'll meet you there?"

"Yeah, okay." Kara headed towards J'onn's office. "I'll see you in a bit," she called over her shoulder.

* * *

Alex could feel her heart rate increasing, her legs were suddenly heavy and she couldn't run anymore. She'd only been out of action for a couple of weeks but she felt completely out of shape. Her poor form and performance were only proving that J'onn was right, she wasn't ready to come back to work properly. Every time her feet hit the treadmill her whole body ached, she had forgotten how to breathe efficiently and she couldn't concentrate. Her complete lack of focus caused her to lose her footing and she stumbled, grabbing onto the handrails to try to keep herself upright.

"What are you doing?" Kara was at the side of the treadmill, had hit the stop button and had safely pulled her off the machine before Alex had realised she was there.

Alex stumbled again as Kara placed her on solid ground but Kara pulled her up and kept her on her feet.

"Take it easy."

"I can't," Alex shook Kara off and headed to the weight area of the gym, throwing her fist at a punch bag on her way past.

Kara watched as she loaded up the weights on the bar and then lay down on the bench, readying herself to lift. Kara grimaced as Alex struggled to lift the weight. She only just managed the first rep but went to do another anyway causing Kara to intervene.

"I've got it," Kara easily lifted the weight back onto the bar.

"I had it," Alex growled as she stood up and went back to the punchbag.

"What's going on, Alex?" Kara asked as Alex began to throw her bare fists at the leather bag.

"Nothing," Alex continued to hit the bag.

Finally, Kara had had enough of watching her sister struggle and pulled Alex away from the punch bag. Alex fought her off but Kara took her hand, examining her now red knuckles. Alex winced as Kara poked at the raw skin before she was led to a chair.

"Alex?"

"J'onn still hasn't cleared me for the field, he won't even consider letting me take the fitness test or psyche eval yet, he said I can only work from the DEO until he says otherwise."

"Good."

"You're siding with him?" Alex got to her feet and began to pace the gym.

"Only three days ago you were barely conscious in the med bay and yesterday you pinned him against the wall just for training with me."

"He could've hurt you," Alex threw her fist at the bag again.

"Look at yourself right now and tell me you can honestly say he didn't make the right call."

Alex continued to punch the bag.

"He's probably worried that you would go off mission just because you thought I was in trouble."

"Has he cleared you for work?" Alex turned on her heels and stalked back to Kara.

Kara took a step back and turned her attention to the floor, "He said I can if I'm ready."

"He what?" Alex turned and ran to the door, Kara only just stopped her before she flung it open.

"If you confront him like this then you are only proving his point."

Alex glared at Kara until Kara felt as if she was boring right through her skull, so angry that if she was Kryptonian she would've probably melted her with her heat vision. Kara faltered slightly and Alex tried to take advantage and push her way through the door but Kara recovered and stopped her.

"I told him I wasn't ready," Kara whispered and then it was Alex who faltered.

"Oh."

"I mean, obviously if there was something major I would help but I told J'onn that I wasn't ready to be here properly."

"Why?" Alex eventually managed.

"I've been stuck in the med bay for ages, I want at least a few days to sort myself out." Kara moved away from the door, "You've also kind of been stuck here most of the time, maybe you should take the opportunity to do the same," she mumbled.

Alex rolled her eyes.

"Please, at least just take Maggie somewhere nice tonight," Kara asked.

"But..."

"Alex, I need to know that I can be alone in my apartment and you have to stop neglecting your relationship with Maggie. You've got to find the right balance in your life, just like I do. Plus, she totally deserves it, we'd have probably completely fallen apart without her."

* * *

Kara listened to her apartment building creek in the wind as she sat on her sofa, her feet resting on her table with her soft blanket covering her legs. The building grumbled and groaned but she easily blocked out the noise, instead focusing on the late-night rolling news broadcast as she sipped her hot chocolate. Luckily the most pressing topic was President Marsdin's approval ratings and not a natural disaster or alien invasion, there was nothing that required Supergirl's presence. Which again was lucky, as she hadn't brought her suit home from the DEO yet and as she had already told J'onn, she wasn't actually ready to take up the mantle again.

She groaned in frustration as she spotted yet another spelling error in the print out of her resume and cover letter that she was trying to read through and improve. How had she ever thought she could be a journalist when she couldn't even spell? She scrunched up the paper in frustration and threw it at the newscaster on the screen before diving face down on the couch and burying her head in the cushions. But then again, she had been unknowingly infected by a parasite when she had originally updated her resume, maybe she should be a bit more lenient on herself.

She pushed herself up stiffly and stretched as she stood up. As she moved to go and pick up the piece of scrunched up paper to give it another shot, she got tangled in her blanket and knocked the leg of the table, sending her stack of magazines and newspapers sprawling across the living area.

"Crap," she cursed under her breath and kicked the nearest one in frustration.

Instead of picking up the mess, she reached across and turned the TV off before heading for bed. It was 4am and she was finally feeling tired.

* * *

Alex knocked once before she opened up the door with her fingerprint. Kara had already made her apartment looked lived in. There was a trail of cushions, blankets and some CatCo magazines across the living area as well as a discarded notepad and some screwed up paper. A quick glance at the kitchen told Alex that Kara's fridge was probably nearly empty already. There were dirty plates everywhere and the doors to both the oven and microwave had been left open.

God her sister was messy.

Alex peered through the bedroom door and saw Kara asleep on her bed. The comforter was pulled up to her face, so high that Alex could only just see her closed eyes.

"Kara?" Alex called as she shuffled into the room.

"I'm asleep," Kara pulled the comforter right over her head.

"Kara it's lunchtime, you can't stay in bed all day."

"Shouldn't you be at work?" Kara grumbled but didn't move from the bed.

"Come on," Alex pulled the comforter off Kara and then wrenched the curtains open, the sky outside was dull but Kara still grimaced from the new light source.

"Alex," Kara whined, reaching for the comforter again only for Alex to get to it first and completely throw it off the bed onto the floor.

Kara sighed but stumbled out of bed anyway, throwing her sister the sternest look she could muster as she exited the bedroom and headed into the bathroom, letting the door slam behind her.

Alex made Kara's bed before she entered the living room and picked up the cushions and then the blanket which she folded neatly and placed on the back of the couch. After retrieving all the magazines from the floor, she uncrumpled the ball of paper and quickly read through the cover letter before placing it on top of the pile of magazines. The nearly empty mug of cocoa on the table indicated that Kara had been struggling to sleep which might explain why she had still been in bed. She reached to nosy through the notepad but Kara emerged from the bathroom and interrupted her.

"Sorry," Kara sounded a lot more awake and sunny than when she had entered her bathroom, "Leave all that, I'll sort it out later," she called as she went back into her bedroom to get changed.

Alex ignored her sister and took the mug to the kitchen and started cleaning up Kara's mess.

By the time Kara emerged from her room she was nearly finished washing her dishes.

"I told you I'd clean up later," Kara scolded as she picked up a tea towel and began to dry the clean dishes.

"I've heard you say that before," Alex rolled her eyes, "It's better to clean things up straight away."

"Sorry, Eliza," Kara mocked earning her a shove from Alex.

"I just mean you need to keep on top of these things before you end up living in filth," Alex told her as she pulled the plug out of the sink and dried her hands.

"I have never let things get that bad," Kara frowned.

Alex shrugged but didn't respond, instead wandering to Kara's fridge to examine the contents. It wasn't as empty as she had first assumed based on the mess in the kitchen.

"Do you want to go and get some lunch?" she asked as she shut the door again.

"Yeah," Kara checked her watch, "But it'll have to be a quick one, I'm supposed to be meeting Lena at L-Corp in an hour."

"Well you eat ridiculously fast so we should be fine," Alex smiled, and this time it was Kara shoving her in retaliation.

Kara laughed as Alex stumbled slightly.

"Just for that I'm picking where we eat," Alex smirked as she led the way out of the apartment.


	33. Chapter 33

Winn sighed loudly and leant back on his chair, the cast on his arm was getting itchy and he was getting fed up of everyone crowding around his work station. He sat up suddenly as he noticed Kara almost skipping into the command centre, a huge smile on her face, bringing the spring sunshine into the room with her. She had a bag over her shoulder and a colourful folder in her hand. Alex, Maggie, James and J'onn all followed his gaze.

"Why are you guys all still here so late?" she addressed the team and twitched her glasses as she realised they were all looking at her oddly.

"We are just triple checking there are no Cadmus links to the parasite-worm thingies," Winn averted his eyes and focused on his screen again.

"I thought you had some suspects in custody?" Kara frowned, she didn't really know the ins and outs of what had happened to her or how the case had developed whilst she had been fighting to stay alive in the med bay.

"We do and they confessed to engineering those worms and they maintain that they never meant to create that creature that you fought in the plaza or the one from the subway. They pushed things too far and then their creations escaped," Maggie told her.

"Do you believe them?"

"They both passed a lie detector test, as did the alien who was selling them," J'onn joined in.

"So why not just case closed?"

"We're just being thorough, making sure there are no loose ends," Maggie told her.

"What brings you here looking so happy?" Alex, who had been watching Kara closely, asked.

"Oh," Kara blushed and readjusted her glasses again. "I've been at L-Corp, Lena was helping me with my resume and she offered me a job."

This elicited a variety of responses. James looked angry and Alex looked wary. Maggie and J'onn both smiled politely and Winn got up to hug Kara.

"I'm so glad things are looking up for you," Winn whispered to her and then pulled away.

James and Alex still hadn't wiped the concerned looks off their faces when Winn and Kara separated.

"Are you going to accept?" James asked.

"I don't know, I told her I'd think about it."

"Kara…" James started.

"I know what you're going to say, so don't. I'm going to think about it, end of." Kara shut him down.

Alex glared at James who threw his hands up in defeat.

"Actually Winn, I came to see you. Can I borrow you for a few minutes?"

"Um, yeah, sure," Winn became flustered as Alex glared at him suspiciously.

Winn followed Kara as she headed out of the command centre.

"Hold on," Alex grabbed Kara's arm and pulled her close to her so she could whisper, "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," Kara whispered back and smiled.

"Do you need me to stay with you tonight?"

"No, I thought we agreed at lunch that you'd spend tonight with Maggie again and that we'd have sister's night tomorrow?"

"Yeah, but if you need me to…"

"Alex…" Kara interrupted only for Alex to cut her off straight away.

"I know but you struggled to sleep last night and…"

"Alex, we agreed, please."

Alex eventually nodded in resignation, "Have you got any plans?"

Kara hesitated and picked at the folder in her hand for a moment but decided to tell her sister.

"Actually, I was going to head to the Fortress of Solitude for a bit."

"Are you sure you're up to flying that far?"

"Yes, I'm sure, that's why I'm here actually, Winn still has my suit."

"Oh, okay," Alex stuttered, "Will you call me when you get back?"

"It might be late."

"It doesn't matter, I won't sleep until I know you're back," Alex told her truthfully.

"Okay," Kara nodded before heading up the stairs, Winn following her earnestly.

* * *

Maggie was struggling to balance her bags of groceries in one arm as she routed through her pocket for the key to Alex's apartment. She still hadn't found it when she reached the front door but it didn't matter, she didn't need it anyway because the door was slightly ajar. Maggie placed the bags down on the floor and listened at the door for a moment. Nothing sounded out of the ordinary.

She removed her gun and edged her way into the apartment.

"NCPD," she announced herself.

Other than the door being open, nothing immediately seemed amiss. She continued to enter the apartment slowly until she spotted the intruder. Maggie put her weapon back in its holster and picked up her grocery bags and placed them on the kitchen counter.

"Kara?" she called as she put away her shopping.

Kara was sprawled face down on Alex's bed, pillows strewn everywhere, including over her head.

Maggie finished emptying her bags before slowly approaching the bedroom.

"Kara?" she called again as she made it to the top of the steps.

Kara appeared to squirm and buried her face further into the mattress.

"Is everything okay?" Maggie stayed at the top of the stairs, unsure if Kara wanted her to come closer.

A muffled noise came from the bed.

"I didn't quite catch that," Maggie replied, still keeping her distance.

Kara pushed herself into a sitting position and turned to look at Maggie, she looked like she had been asleep. She was dressed as Kara but her hair was extra curly and she didn't have her glasses on, it was jarring seeing the Kara Danvers – Supergirl hybrid.

"Do you live here now?"

Maggie shrugged, she wasn't really sure. She barely slept at her own place anymore but she and Alex hadn't really had that conversation.

"Sorry," Kara crawled off the bed and started to head down the steps.

"Wait," Maggie reached out for Kara's arm to stop her, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Kara stopped and looked at Maggie hesitantly.

"Actually, I was waiting for you," Kara sighed as she randomly sat down on the top step. "I went to your place but you weren't there."

Maggie waited for a further explanation but Kara sat in silence, playing with her fingers nervously.

"Did you want to talk?" Maggie sat down next to Kara on the step, waiting patiently for Kara to speak.

"Do you love her?" Kara's question caught Maggie off guard, as did the response that came out of her own mouth without any thought.

"More than I have ever loved anyone in the world." It wasn't like they had never said it to each other but Maggie smiled at the realisation.

"It hurts sometimes how much I care for her," Kara whispered.

"I know that feeling," Maggie mused.

"I will always keep her safe but I can't promise that I can keep myself safe. I have proved that recently. I need to know that you will make sure she's okay, that she's happy and loved."

"Kara, what's going on? Has something happened, has someone threatened you?" Maggie jumped into full on cop mode.

"Someone's always threatening me, that's the problem," Kara sighed, "Maggie please, I need to know that Alex will be okay if anything happens to me."

"Nothing is going to happen to you."

"Maggie," Kara pushed.

"I love your sister. I will do anything and everything in my power to protect her," Maggie told her firmly, maintaining eye contact with Kara.

It seemed to be enough as Kara stopped fidgeting and jumped forward to hug Maggie with such force that the pair of them nearly went tumbling down the steps. Maggie reciprocated the hug as Kara's tears began to soak through her top. Kara seemed more relieved than sad though and so she stroked her hair and let her cling onto her until her phone began to ring in the pocket of her jeans.

Maggie tried to reach into her pocket to retrieve her phone but Kara was still tightly wrapped around her and she struggled to reach it. Eventually it stopped ringing, only to restart a second later.

"Kara?"

"Oh, sorry, you should get that," Kara pulled away and stood up.

The phone stopped ringing just as she managed to pull it from her pocket but the screen revealed that in fact she had missed four calls and two texts, all from Alex.

As Kara let herself into the bathroom Alex phoned again.

"Hey."

"I can't find Kara anywhere, she wants a few days away from the DEO but she's not at her apartment. I haven't spoken to her since she got back from the Fortress last night."

"Alex."

"She left her phone and her suit there so I can't track her. I called James and Lena, no one's seen her today."

"Alex."

"There've been no Supergirl sightings this morning. What if she's in trouble, what if she's left the city? What if she went back to the Fortress? Last night when she called me she kept going on about Metropolis and Midvale, who knows where else she could've flown off to."

"Kara's with me," Maggie managed to get in as Alex paused for breath.

"Where are you?"

"At your apartment."

"I'm coming over," Alex blurted through the phone as Kara exited the bathroom looking fresher.

"I don't think you need to. We've just been for groceries," Maggie lied causing Kara to raise an eyebrow towards Maggie.

"Oh, alright, is Kara okay?"

"Yeah, we're just about to make some cookies, I'll try and save you one," Kara's eyes lit up and Maggie suppressed a laugh as she watched her rush to the kitchen.

"Alright, I'll message you when I'm on my way home from work, love you."

"Love you too," Maggie ended the call and went to the kitchen.

"New rule," she tried to sound stern as she turned the oven on, "Don't leave your apartment without your phone."

Kara leant against the counter, "Sorry, I was in a rush, I wanted to speak to you," she mumbled.

"Well you stressed your sister out," Maggie sighed and handed Kara some butter from the fridge.

"How long do you think she's going to carry on like this?" Kara asked meekly.

"I don't know," Maggie admitted as she rummaged through Alex's cupboards, "Maybe until she feels like everything's back to normal."

"Maybe once J'onn reinstates her to full duty she'll be too busy," Kara pondered as she shoved a handful of chocolate chips into her mouth.

"Hey, stop that, we need all of those," Maggie gently smacked her hand away, "And unfortunately for you, I don't think J'onn is in a rush for Alex to be in the field."

"Maybe I should go back to the DEO then, so that I can make sure she's behaving," Kara weighed out the flour, sending it everywhere, "Although every time I go on a mission she'd probably be on edge."

"Kara you need to make sure you feel ready in yourself before you go back properly," Maggie began to clean up the flour as Kara mixed everything together, she didn't need an electric mixer with arms of steel.

"Alex said you wanted to sort yourself out before you go back to being Supergirl properly. What do you want to sort out?" Maggie pressed as Kara began to dollop the dough onto a baking tray.

"I don't know," Kara shrugged as she resisted the temptation to lick her finger and carried on spooning out the mixture. "I've got some job leads I want to pursue, and I'm still weighing up Lena's offer of working as an assistant at L-Corp."

"What are the pros and cons?"

"Huh?"

"You know."

"The main pro is that it's a job, but also it pays a little better than when I was at CatCo, Lena is a strong female boss and it takes me back to my science/technology roots from back on Krypton." Kara finished arranging the dough and put the cookies in the oven. "But really I had my heart set on being a reporter but the biggest issue is that I don't know how easy it will be to keep my identity as Supergirl a secret from Lena."

"Do you need to keep it a secret?" Maggie dragged her finger around the bowl and then put it in her mouth.

Kara licked the spoon, "I don't know, Alex says yes but that's because she doesn't really trust Lena even though Lena has beyond proved she's not like her mother or her brother."

"But what do you think?"

"I like having a friend that only knows me as Kara. When I told Winn at first it was great to finally be able to share it with him but it brought up so many issues, we're not as close as we used to be. But on the other hand, I don't like that I'm hiding it from her. Lena has trouble trusting people anyway, I think that if she found out that I had been keeping this from her then it would ruin our friendship."

"Do you think she might already know?"

"Why?" Kara looked worried.

Maggie shrugged, "It didn't take long for me to realise and I didn't even really know you."

"I guess she might, but then again, she saw J'onn rescuing me from the café as Supergirl, maybe that might have cast doubt in her mind."

"Yeah, J'onn does a pretty good impression of Supergirl."

Maggie turned the tap on over the sink and watched as Kara gathered the pots, her brow furrowed and the famous crinkle was clearly visible on her forehead. She changed the subject, trying to ease some of the panic that was obviously building within Kara.

"Hey, so Alex said you guys were having sister's night tonight. What have you planned?" she asked as she scrubbed the bowl.

Kara shrugged and began to wipe down the mess on the counter with a cloth.

"You don't know?" Maggie prompted, still trying to steer Kara out of her thoughts.

"Alex is picking what we watch because I made her suffer through Pitch Perfect the other night," Kara smiled to herself.

"What's wrong with Pitch Perfect?" Maggie frowned as she put the last of the washing up on the draining board and then went to the fridge to grab a bottle of water, "Do you want one?" she asked as she waved the bottle at Kara.

"No, thanks," Kara shook her head and then followed Maggie to the couch, grabbing the TV remote before Maggie could.

"Hey!" Maggie pouted in fake dismay.

"I have to put up with whatever nightmare inducing blood fest Alex picks tonight, let me pick something from my Netflix list," she matched Maggie's pout.

"She never lets me pick though," Maggie whined, "The other week her idea of a compromise was making me shut my eyes and scroll through the horror list and pick one at random." Maggie kept up her desperate look.

"Fine," Kara handed her the remote.

"Yes!" Maggie laughed, immediately flicking to her own profile.

"Why do you even put up with her," Kara laughed as she relaxed into the couch.

"Because I love her," Maggie sighed dramatically.

"Me too," Kara smiled.


	34. Chapter 34

Alex couldn't help but smile at the sight that met her as she opened her door. Maggie was curled up on the corner of her sofa, eyes closed and head lolling, almost asleep. Kara was next to her, fast asleep and sprawled out on the remainder of the couch, one long leg resting over Maggie's legs, the other curled underneath herself.

Alex quietly slid her jacket off her shoulders and hung it up before slipping off her boots in the same careful manner. She was pleasantly surprised. The air didn't smell like burnt food, her kitchen was relatively clean and if they had set anything on fire, Maggie and Kara had hidden the evidence well.

On her counter was a plate with a pile of cookies and her name shakily written on a slip of paper underneath it, surrounded by love hearts. She took a cookie from the edge of the pile and took a bite before turning to fill the kettle with water.

She smiled again as she tasted the chocolate, it wasn't bad at all, she'd had a lot worse from Kara in the past.

"Hey," Maggie was up off the couch and snaking her arms around Alex's waist, "Did you have a good day?"

"It was alright," Alex leaned back into her girlfriend, "A bit slow though. I spent most of my day getting caught up on current threats."

"Did you talk to J'onn?"

"No, I thought it was probably best that I didn't bother him," Alex turned to face Maggie, pulling away slightly so she could gaze into her eyes.

Maggie nodded and snuck a glance at Kara across the apartment. She was still fast asleep; her legs had already claimed the space left when Maggie had got up.

"Did you like your cookie?" Maggie turned her attention back to Alex, wiping a smudge of chocolate from the corner of her mouth and then gently pressing her lips to Alex's, smiling as Alex kissed her back.

"I've had worse," Alex laughed and pulled away and Maggie pouted as Alex turned her attention back to the kettle.

"Do you want a coffee?" she asked quietly, not quite whispering but conscious that Kara was still asleep just feet away.

"Please, otherwise I'm never going to get through this stakeout tonight. I'm tired already."

"Do you know how long you're going to have to be there?" Alex asked as she opened the fridge and retrieved the milk.

"Apparently the club usually shuts its doors at midnight, hopefully that means I'll be home by two. So, don't worry, I'll be way out of your way for sisters' night."

"You would've been invited if you weren't working," Alex stirred the milk into Maggie's drink.

"Why? I'm not a Danvers sister."

"It's not like that."

"I didn't mean it like that. Kara needs time with just you. I think you need to make sure sisters' night become part of your weekly routine again."

Alex continued to absentmindedly stir Maggie's coffee, watching Kara snoozing on the couch.

"I think that's done," Maggie smiled softly as she rescued her drink from Alex's spoon. "What have you got planned for tonight?"

"Huh?" Alex brought her attention back to Maggie.

"Kara said that you were picking the movie?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry," Alex found herself flustered.

"So, what are your plans?"

"Well, that cinema on Granville shows old movies on Thursdays, they're showing Wizard of Oz tonight so I was going to see if Kara was up for going out. Otherwise we can watch something here or at her apartment, I mean we used to usually have sisters' night at her place but its up to her where she wants to go. I've stocked up on all her favourite movie foods either way."

"Sounds good," Maggie picked up a cookie and kissed Alex on the cheek. "I'm going to get ready for work," she headed for the bedroom to grab her clothes.

Alex threw herself down on her armchair and began to scroll through her phone, keeping one eye on her sister as she slept.

* * *

They stayed sat in the dark in their seats until the rest of the audience had left and the credits had finished.

"Are you ready?" Alex placed her hand on Kara's thigh.

"Yeah," Kara's voice was rough.

Alex stood up and stretched but Kara didn't move to get up.

"Come on, before they kick us out," Alex stifled a yawn and put her hand out for Kara to take.

Kara reluctantly took her hand and followed Alex out of the cinema. Both sisters squinted against the harsh light in the foyer.

"Do you mind if we walk back to your place?"

"Walking's fine," Kara mumbled, her eyes flitting around at the public milling around the concession stand.

"Do you remember when we first came here?" Kara asked as Alex linked her arm.

"Yeah, it was the first time you visited me since I moved to the city. I hadn't really explored anything more than the clubs and you really couldn't pass for over twenty-one so you dragged me around until you saw that this dump was showing the first three Harry Potter movies back-to-back and that they were selling both hot dogs and that weird green flavour of slushie you used to like."

Alex shivered as the air hit her. It was dark now and the streets were full of people dressed for a night out. She pulled Kara closer, aware that her hearing still wasn't one hundred percent.

"I still like it, they just don't sell it anywhere anymore," Kara glanced around at the crowds of people and began to steer Alex away from the main street.

"I think that's because it was discontinued because they found the colouring in it was toxic."

"Not to me it wasn't," Kara moaned causing Alex to laugh, attracting the attention of a group of young women who were all already dancing as they stumbled down the street in heels.

"I miss being young and just being able to go out," Kara sighed, looking longingly back at the group as Alex led them around a corner.

"What do you mean? You barely ever went clubbing."

"I mean just going out and having fun. Everywhere I go now I feel like I have to be on guard just in case I'm needed."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Alex mused as Kara's apartment building came into view, "But you can still go out and have fun."

"Sounds expensive and right now I can't think of anything worse than loud club music."

"Are your ears still really bad?"

"No, but I'm still having to put a lot of effort into controlling my hearing, even right now."

"I'm sorry," Alex mumbled into Kara's shoulder as they walked towards her apartment.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, you saved my life, it's just a side effect and it's getting better every day," Kara kissed the hair on the top of Alex's head.

"I know that but…" Alex could feel her voice cracking.

"Hey, no crying, we promised, no more tears, especially not on sisters' night," Kara soothed, stopping short of the entrance to her apartment building and pulling her arms properly around her sister.

When she was ready, Alex wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her jacket and then reached out to open the door for Kara. They headed to the elevator in silence, Alex sniffing slightly.

"Hey, can I show you something?" Kara asked as the door to the lift opened.

"Of course," Alex looked at her sister, her eyes red and confused, especially when Kara hit the button for the top floor.

"Don't look so worried," Kara laughed, "I want to show you the roof. I like sitting up there sometimes, like when I can't sleep or just to watch the sunrise when I don't want to get out of my pyjamas and fly somewhere. The sky is surprisingly clear and I've never seen anyone else up there."

Kara's building was taller than all the others in the surrounding area and sure enough, once they finally reached the roof terrace, they found it deserted. Alex could see why no one ever went up there though. There was a table and two wooden chairs, all covered in moss and there were empty plant pots everywhere, presumably the plants that they had contained were long dead. Every single tile was cracked or chipped, the whole area had been neglected.

Kara didn't seem to notice or care. She sat down on the far end of the roof and lay back, her arms stretched behind her head to stop it from hitting the floor. Alex reluctantly followed her lead; the floor was still a little bit damp from an earlier rain shower and a shiver ran through her as she sat on the cold roof.

"Wow, it's actually pretty clear, I don't usually bother stargazing in the city because of the light pollution but this is great."

"It isn't as clear as the sky in Midvale but I like it up here," Kara sighed, taking in the stars.

"The one thing I miss about working from the DEO desert base is watching the sky at night," Alex mused.

They lay in silence, both lost in their own thoughts for a while.

"Kara?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you thought anymore about Lena's job offer?" Alex asked and turned on her side, propping her head up with her hand to watch her sister.

"Yeah," Kara didn't look away from the sky.

Alex waited patiently.

"I think I'm going to accept," Kara looked over at Alex who managed to keep her expression neutral, "I know you don't trust her but…"

"But do you trust her?"

"Absolutely."

"Then I think I can trust her too," Alex reached out to take her sister's hand, "Are you going to tell her about Supergirl?"

"I'm not sure yet. I'm going to be an assistant to her marketing team, it might not even come up."

"And you're sure this is what you want?"

"Yes," Kara told her firmly, "I thought about it a lot. I'm disappointed that being a reporter didn't work out and that I'll be starting from scratch again as an assistant but this job could be the start of a new career, there will be so many opportunities working at L Corp," Kara sat up straight.

"I'm proud of you, you know that, right?" Alex put her arm out and Kara crawled into her embrace. "Now, can we go inside? Its freezing up here."


	35. Chapter 35

Alex was torn. She couldn't decide what Kara needed for the best. Until today she hadn't pushed Kara, she had let her stay away from the DEO for the last week but she was worried that if she spent too much time away from being Supergirl then she might never return to the DEO properly. Things at the DEO had changed a lot since Kara had assumed the mantle of Supergirl, so much in fact, that Alex worried sometimes that the agency would be unable to function in the long run without Supergirl. Alex also missed working with her sister and that was really why she had invited her to tag along on the mission that J'onn had set for her as an informal assessment of her readiness for field work before he formally assessed her tomorrow.

J'onn had agreed to Supergirl tagging along without much persuasion. Alex had sold it to him by reminding him that a huge part of her job was working with Supergirl but she suspected he had had his own motives for allowing Kara to be part of what should have been a solo mission.

Whatever the reason, it was a good job really, as Alex currently found herself falling, following the same path as the torrent of rain being unleashed from the clouds, straight towards the ground.

Kara's hand clenched tightly around her forearm and unceremoniously dragged her away from the earth into the air, eventually settling to hover a foot above the ground. It was painful, Kara's vice-like grip was definitely going to leave a bruise and so Alex tried to free herself. The uncoordinated efforts only resulted in Kara dropping her and Alex fell to the ground, seemingly dragging Kara with her.

The ground was muddy and waterlogged, and the pair's landing sent mud flying everywhere. Alex's face hit the soft earth and she groaned as she felt the cold mud seep into her clothes. She caught sight of Kara who had only landed inches away and was also now covered in mud.

Alex sat up and then watched Kara do the same. Kara had never dropped her before. They always used to be so in sync, they needed to get that back. Kara looked bewildered, her legs kicked out as if she thought she was still in the air and then her hands felt around the muddy ground, seemingly trying to comprehend how she had ended up there. Alex wasn't even sure that Kara had noticed her, she didn't acknowledge her as she pushed up off the ground and high into the sky.

"Kara!" she yelled and stood up as she watched Kara disappear from view. When she didn't get a response she called J'onn's name instead but quickly realised that her comm was no longer in her ear.

"Damn it!" Alex crouched down to retrieve the tiny earpiece from the mud. She rubbed it against the driest area of her trousers to try to remove some of the mud and then placed it back in her ear.

"J'onn?" she tried again. She didn't receive a reply, not even a bit of static, nothing to indicate the ear piece was even remotely working.

Kara who had been hovering out of the way, lowered herself to the ground, splashing more mud on Alex as she did.

"Is it totally busted?" Kara asked as Alex removed the earpiece again and tried to fiddle with the tiny device.

"Looks like it," Alex mumbled as Kara waved her arm so that her cape was shielding Alex slightly from the harsh wind and rain. "Maybe Winn can fix it but there's nothing I can do in this stupid field," she stuffed the offending piece of tech into the pocket of her vest. "Is yours working?"

Kara looked sheepish but didn't answer.

"No?"

"Actually, I think I left mine at the DEO. I take it you don't have cell service?" Kara asked, cape still acting as a shelter.

"Nope," Alex spat and waved her cell phone screen at Kara to prove her point.

"Are you hurt?" Kara began to scan Alex's body with her x-ray vision.

"Stop that," Alex scooted out from under the cape. "I'm fine," she said against the wind.

"I'm sorry, this is my fault."

"What is?" Alex frowned as she wiped her muddy hands down herself and then set off down the broken but slightly less muddy path at the edge of the field.

"I should have stayed at home," Kara followed slowly behind.

"Kara you caught me, if you hadn't I'd be a lot worse off than just a broken comm and a sore arm."

"I know, but if I was more useful you wouldn't have…"

"Kara, I was being stupid, I shouldn't have been trying to take that shortcut. I'm pretty sure J'onn has purposely sent me out here on this wild goose chase to test my resolve. This is a rookie agent task at best."

"Are we lost?" Kara stopped following, taking in the vast landscape.

"Nope," Alex carried on through the field, her cold fingers fumbled clumsily on her phone screen, waiting for a signal to magically appear. "Two miles south of the abandoned outpost. We must be nearly there."

"Kara?" she called when she didn't receive a response.

"Kara?" Alex stopped and looked around, she couldn't see her sister anywhere.

"Kara?" she called into the wind and headed back the way she came, retracing her steps to find Kara.

"Over here," Kara's voice was barely audible over the wind.

Alex headed off the path and into the middle of the field.

Kara was waist deep in mud, her cape was somehow twisted right over her shoulder and around her chest.

"Careful," Kara warned as Alex got closer.

"What the hell happened?"

"I don't know. One minute I was walking and the next I was down here." Kara brought a hand down on the mud surrounding her. "And every time I try to get out I sink a bit further, the same when I try to fly out."

"Why didn't you shout me?"

"I did," Kara threw her head back in frustration.

Alex assessed the situation and then carefully walked away.

"Where are you going?" Kara called as her sister disappeared from view, "Don't leave me here."

"Don't be so dramatic," Alex bent down to pick up a broken plank of wood from the remains of a fence that she had spotted previously.

She was only gone a minute but by the time she could see Kara again she was frantically using her freeze breath to try to solidify the mud so that she could try to free herself.

"What are you doing?" Alex called as she waded back through the mud to Kara's side.

Kara was struggling, her eyes wide and panicked as she aimed the cold air poorly, narrowly avoiding freezing Alex.

"Kara!" Alex almost screamed as Kara appeared to sink further into the mud. "Stay still."

Alex's reappearance stopped Kara's uncoordinated struggling for a moment, their eyes met and Alex saw the pure distress Kara was in. She had actually thought Alex was going to leave her there in the middle of the field.

Alex placed the plank of wood behind Kara and then knelt down and assessed the stability. Once she knew it was safe she quickly grabbed her sister and pulled her up from under her armpits. She struggled to free her but once Kara was only knee deep in mud she managed to fly up, leaving Alex desperately clinging onto her.

Luckily for Alex, Kara set her down gently back on the rough path but both women fought to stay upright. Alex struggled to overcome the rush of adrenaline that had accompanied her assent into the sky and clung onto Kara, who herself was trying to recover from her panic attack, as a result both women sunk to their knees.

"Are you okay?" they both spluttered simultaneously, Kara struggled to her feet.

"Are you staying down there?" she laughed, trying to brush off the last few minutes of panic.

"How could you think that I was going to leave you sinking in the mud?" Alex whispered, her voice on the edge of breaking.

"I…I…" Kara stuttered but there was no way to explain what were completely irrational thoughts.

"I flew your pod into space to rescue you. How could you think that I wouldn't get you out of the mud?" Alex didn't mean to raise her voice and Kara's bottom lip began trembling.

"I…" Kara was still lost for words.

"How many times do I have to say it Kara? I'm not leaving you. Not because I'm with Maggie, not in space and definitely not in a muddy field."

Kara watched silently as Alex remained on the ground, her eyes firmly on the puddle next to her.

"Come on," Kara extended her arm to Alex, "We have a possible UFO to secure."

"You know it won't be an actual alien ship, right?" Alex sighed as she took her hand.

"I know, but it's still exciting."

* * *

Kara winced as she walked down the corridor. She clearly hadn't done a good enough job of cleaning her suit as she could feel yesterday's dirt in the lining, in fact she could hear it rubbing against her skin. Luckily, Supergirl wasn't needed and she had just finished her scheduled appointment with the DEO rehab therapist on ways to manage her hearing.

Kara was now wandering random corridors, hoping to see her sister and see how she was getting on with the rest of her assessments. She couldn't hear her sister anywhere and so she headed to J'onn's office where she knew that sound dampening technology was rampant in the walls.

"Miss Danvers, can I borrow you for a minute please?" J'onn startled Kara out of her thoughts and she stood frozen in her tracks in the corridor.

"Sure, what's up?" she eventually recovered.

"In my office please." J'onn led her back down the corridor and held the door to his office open to reveal that Alex was already in there. "Take a seat," he prompted as Kara hesitated in the doorway.

Kara twitched her glasses nervously as she took the seat next to her sister and J'onn made his way to the other side of his desk. She glanced at Alex but her sister kept looking straight ahead.

"What's going on?" she looked to J'onn as he sat down.

"Well, I am completing Agent Danvers' paperwork. She has passed every assessment she needs to and I am satisfied that she is fit for all her duties here at the DEO."

Kara smiled and placed her hand on Alex's shoulder and squeezed gently. Alex smiled slightly but didn't look at her sister.

"However, I think that there are a few rules that we might need to establish going forward."

Kara's heart sank but she nodded politely at J'onn.

"First of all, the chain of command." J'onn brought his hands together in front of him on the desk. "Kara, from now on, you report to me, and me only. In the event that I am not here or unable to complete my duties as director, then Alex is in charge and you will report to her. This is a professional government agency and…"

Kara accidentally zoned out of J'onn's rant, suddenly wondering who would be in charge if both J'onn and Alex weren't around, if they were both injured, if they both were killed in action."

"Miss Danvers?"

"Sorry, what?" Kara tried to control her breathing.

"Do you need me to repeat myself?"

"No, sorry, I heard you," Kara lied.

J'onn nodded, "Secondly, and this is the main thing actually," J'onn glanced at Alex before turning back to Kara. "Kara, you are to have weekly medicals for the next four weeks. If everything is okay after that you will be required to complete a medical on the first Monday of every month, no exceptions."

Kara nodded her understanding.

"Alex is going to be training up the medical team to also complete your assessments and on how to best take care of you if you are injured."

Kara must have looked as uncertain as she felt because J'onn explained himself.

"I do not ever want to find myself in a situation again where both of you are unwell in the medical bay and no one really has the expertise they need to treat Supergirl. Alex is the expert, she needs to share her knowledge." J'onn addressed this to Kara without looking at Alex.

"The results of every medical will be reviewed by Alex and then passed to me."

"Why?" Kara snuck another look at her sister who was still staring at J'onn, her jaw tight.

"You missed a medical check-up whilst you and Alex were trying to avoid each other after Jeremiah…" J'onn cut himself off and looked uncertainly at Alex. "After reviewing your records, I believe that we might have been able to detect the depletion in your solar energy levels sooner if you had had your medical on time."

"It's not Alex's fault, I was avoiding her. I was the one that kept flaking on my check up."

"This isn't about attributing blame. At the end of the day, I am the commanding officer and I am responsible for your well-being. I neglected my duty of care to you," J'onn's voice was stern but a little shaky. "I need to ensure that there are safeguards to protect all my agents and that includes Supergirl."

Kara looked at Alex worriedly and Alex finally turned to meet her gaze and nodded slightly.

"I know that the last few months have been hard for both of you and I know that you are working on your relationship, but when you are here, you have to be professional. Kara, if you are struggling, you need to tell someone."

Kara shrunk into her chair.

"My door is always open to you."

Kara nodded.

"Is there anything you want to ask or for me to clarify?" J'onn's eyes bore into her own.

"No."

"Okay, you can go," J'onn sighed.

"Thank you," Kara rushed out of the room without another look back and lingered at the end of the corridor, waiting for Alex.

Alex exited the office after two minutes, taking the time to shut the door gently. Kara didn't approach and watched as Alex let out a controlled sigh before she noticed Kara watching her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know he was going to do that," Alex made her way down the hallway.

"It's fine, it's just…" Kara hesitated and looked around the corridor.

"What?" Alex prompted.

"Do you really have to have the medical team practising on me?"

Alex laughed but Kara looked concerned so she straightened up and placed her hand on Kara's shoulder.

"I don't think they like me very much anymore, I kept trashing their equipment," Kara whispered.

"Kara, they are professionals and I'll be there to teach them. J'onn's right, there needs to be other medics that can treat you. I'm already working with Dr Kemp to bring his knowledge up to date."

Kara still looked reluctant.

"Maggie and I were thinking about taking a vacation. This way I'd know you could be given the proper treatment if anything were to happen to you."

"Nothing would happen to me."

"Kara," Alex poked at her sister's bottom lip," No offence, but for someone who is supposedly indestructible you end up injured a lot."

"Is everything back to normal?" Kara changed the subject slightly.

"How do you mean?"

"Is J'onn letting you do everything as normal?"

"Yeah, it seems so."

"Good," Kara linked Alex's arm and led her towards the command centre, "So where are you thinking about going on vacation?"

"We can't really decide."

"Well there's a surprise," Kara mocked and Alex nudged her.

"Maybe just to Hawaii, but we were also thinking about somewhere in Europe," Alex daydreamed.

"They both sound amazing."

"I know, I haven't had a proper holiday for ages," Alex sighed as Kara's phone began to ring.

"Hi Lena," she answered, leaning against Alex slightly as they continued down the corridor. "Yes, of course, just email me the schedule." Kara shared a smile with Alex. "Absolutely, I can't wait." Her smile broadened as she listened to Lena on the other end of the phone. "Okay, I'll see you tomorrow."

"That was Lena," Kara smiled as she pocketed her phone.

"I'd figured that much out for myself."

"She said that she has fast tracked my paperwork through HR and I can start work tomorrow. She's going to send me the details." Kara looked around the fairly deserted command centre. "Do you need me for anything else?"

"Nope, I don't think so."

"Good, I'm going to go and start preparing for tomorrow." Kara rushed off towards the exit.

"Hey! Wait up," Alex jogged after her, "Will you be at the DEO tomorrow?"

"Um, I'm not sure yet," Kara worried the end of her sleeve.

"Well, do you want to do something tonight? We could go and get something to eat."

"How about breakfast tomorrow?"

"I don't know, it'll be my first proper day back here."

"Exactly, my first day at L-Corp, your first day fully reinstated at the DEO. I'll bring crullers and coffee," Kara smiled.

"Sounds like a plan."


	36. Chapter 36

It had been three weeks since Kara had set foot in the DEO for anything other than her weekly medical assessments. Supergirl level disasters had been non-existent but J'onn was still managing a few lower level incidents, easily flitting between the guises of the Girl of Steel and the Director of the DEO. Alex secretly thought that he kind of enjoyed being Supergirl, being able to fly freely around the city, the unrelenting adoration of the public or maybe it was the uniform.

Alex straightened her stance as she tried to shove the thoughts out of her mind, J'onn was currently stood next to her in front of the team, briefing them on their new mission. They were going after what they believed to be a small Cadmus operation on the outskirts of the city. Usually it was the kind of mission that Supergirl, the real Supergirl, would tag along to, to provide cover in case anything went wrong. She hadn't called her sister though, she had kept her promise to give her the time she needed away from the DEO, which is why she struggled to hide her surprise when Supergirl entered the command centre, ready for action.

She watched as Kara mouthed her apologies to J'onn and stood at the back of the room, listening intently. She looked good, maybe a little bit tired, but she looked more like her old self, radiating strength and hope, even in the dim light of the command centre.

Alex shifted her weight awkwardly as Kara caught her staring and mouthed 'are you okay?' with a touch of a crinkle. Alex responded with a nod and turned her attention back to J'onn, who was finishing up the briefing.

"Any questions?" he asked the group.

No one answered out loud but a couple of agents shook their heads in response.

"Alright, we leave in five minutes," J'onn announced and glanced at his watch as the agents stood and headed to the garage.

As the last of the agents disappeared, J'onn approached Kara, as did Alex.

"Sorry I was late," Kara took a nervous step back as she apologised. "I've got to get used to getting out of L-Corp."

"I understand, do you need me to go over what you missed?" J'onn asked.

"No, I heard most of it on the way over."

"I'm glad you are here," J'onn squeezed her shoulder and then headed for the garage.

"Agent Danvers?" he called over his shoulder, indicating for her to follow.

"I'll be one minute," Alex nodded before turning to Kara. "Are you sure you are ready for this?" she asked. She knew that Kara had been working herself hard to try to impress her new colleagues at L-Corp.

"Yep," Kara nodded but didn't offer further reassurance.

"Okay, please be careful."

"You too," Kara hugged her, "You better go before J'onn gets impatient and comes looking for you," she whispered as she let go of Alex.

Alex laughed to herself and headed to the garage as Supergirl took off out of the window, heading to the suspected base to keep up surveillance discreetly before the DEO agents arrived.

* * *

Of course the Cadmus base had kryptonite. Why wouldn't it? Fortunately, Lillian Luthor was no where to be found and the low-level minions at the base didn't really seem like they knew how to use the green rocks to their advantage once they had finally retrieved them from the lead lined safe.

Alex and her team managed to take down and arrest all six of Luthor's soldiers with barely any help from Supergirl.

"Do you need anything else?" Kara asked as she loaded the last piece of weaponry from the base into the DEO van.

"I guess not," Alex glanced around at the now empty shell of a warehouse, "But you should really come to the debrief."

"I've got to get back to L-Corp."

"Yeah, okay, well we can go back through all this stuff at the DEO when you've finished for the day."

"It's games night tonight, remember?" Kara frowned as Alex looked blank. "You're still coming, right?"

"Sorry, yeah, of course." Alex became flustered, "I'll make sure I finish at a reasonable hour. We can go through this stuff later in the week."

Kara didn't agree but she didn't refuse either, instead she shut the van door and then wiped her hands down her skirt to get rid of the dirt.

"I probably won't have time to go grocery shopping, I've got a late meeting with Lena, would you be able to bring some beer, or whatever you want to drink? I've not got much in."

"Sure, do need me to bring anything else?"

"No, I'm going to order pizza. Just bring yourself around seven, that's when Winn and James are coming."

"I'll see you later then," Alex smiled as Kara prepared to fly off.

"See you later," Kara called as she jumped into the air.

* * *

"I thought you were supposed to be a secret agent?" James laughed as Alex yet again lost a game of Clue. Everyone else had won a game and Winn had won three now.

"Well luckily for me a game of Clue isn't part of the selection process," Alex groaned and took a swig of beer from her bottle, stealing a glance at Kara.

Her sister looked a little bit worn out. Alex caught James' eye and nodded towards Kara, James nodded subtly back.

"Hey Kara? Me and Winn better get going."

"Are you sure? We can play something else."

"I've got an early meeting at CatCo and I'm Winn's ride," James stood up and collected the empty plates and placed them down on the kitchen counter.

Kara got to her feet and hugged James as he re-entered the living area.

"Thank you for coming," she held him tight and he stroked her back.

"Let's not leave it so long until the next games night," he whispered into her ear before pulling away.

Winn swiftly replaced James and awkwardly threw his arms around Kara. Kara snuggled into his shoulder and neither of them said anything until James put his hand on Winn's shoulder.

"I'll see you at the DEO soon, yeah?" Winn asked as he removed himself from Kara's grip.

Kara nodded and walked with her friends the short distance to her front door.

"Thanks for tonight," James started before Kara pulled them both in for another hug.

"Hey Alex," James called on his way out of the door, "Maybe next time invite Maggie to help you out."

Kara shut the door before Alex got a chance to shout back and the sisters started cleaning the apartment, Kara began tidying the living room as Alex washed the dishes and glasses that had accumulated throughout the evening.

"That went well," Alex called across the apartment to Kara.

"I guess," Kara responded without any of her usual enthusiasm.

"What's wrong?" Alex put down the plate she was drying and made her way over to her sister.

Kara shrugged and carried on putting the board game away.

"Talk to me Kara," Alex took the cards her sister had been sorting and placed them on the table and then guided Kara to the couch.

"Kara?"

"It's just so hard now," Kara snuggled into Alex's shoulder, "It's not as easy as it used to be."

"It will get better," Alex stroked her hair, "Your friendship with Winn and James is worth the effort."

"Everything is different now."

"You just don't see each other as often, you're not all working at CatCo anymore so you have to try to make the time for each other."

"I've never been very good at relationships," Kara mumbled and Alex pulled her closer to her.

"Me neither."

"You've got Maggie."

"I know, and I love her, but its not exactly a record breaking length for a relationship, I could still mess it up."

"You won't."

"I hope so," Alex kissed Kara's hair.

"And you'll always have me," Kara whispered.

"Isn't that my line?" Alex poked her and Kara nudged her back.

"So, sisters' night tomorrow?"

"Definitely."

* * *

 **So, I'm going to end this fic here. With this chapter I just wanted to show that things were getting back to some kind of normality for Kara. At some point I feel like this story ended up going in a different direction than I originally thought and so now the title doesn't really fit but I'm going to leave it as it is.**

 **Thank you to everyone who has read this, especially those that have left a review.**


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